A woman traveling eastbound on the 210 Freeway in Arcadia on Saturday morning was killed after she was shot by someone in another car and crashed, authorities said.
California Highway Patrol officers received reports of the shooting and crash near Baldwin Avenue about 9:05 a.m. They found a black Mercedes had hit the right shoulder wall, Officer Vince Ramirez said.
The driver, a 36-year-old Monrovia resident, was pronounced dead at the scene, CHP Officer Ramberto Salcido Jr. said. She suffered at least one gunshot wound.
It was not clear if she was alone in the car, Ramirez said at a news conference near the freeway on Saturday afternoon.
CHP officers stopped short of calling it a “road rage” incident, saying they were still investigating. The shooter remained at large.
Officers shut down the eastbound lanes of the freeway at Baldwin Avenue at 9:30 a.m. Some lanes reopened by about 3:15 p.m. and all lanes had re-opened by just after 6 p.m. Eastbound traffic had been diverted to Michillinda Avenue.
FINAL UPDATE: All lanes are open on Eastbound I-210 at this location. #RoseBowl #Pasadena #ncaa #UCLA #uclafootball #LSU #lsufootball #latraffic https://t.co/R7SivliGSG
— Caltrans District 7 (@CaltransDist7) September 5, 2021
The closure had resulted in a four-mile backup and a 49-minute delay as of 11:30 a.m., according to Caltrans.
It wasn’t certain whether the shooting occurred before or after the crash, but CHP officers said it appeared that the woman likely died from a gunshot wound.
Multiple people exited their vehicles and were walking in lanes, CHP Officer Peter Nicholson said on Saturday morning, but Ramirez later said no other vehicles had crashed.
The freeway crime scene extended from the end of the Michillinda on-ramp to Baldwin Avenue.
The CHP asked anyone who saw anything unusual in the area at the time of the shooting or had any other information to call Officer Carlos Martinez at 323-353-8381.
In May, a 6-year-old boy was shot and killed on the 55 Freeway in Orange as his mother drove him to school. Two people were charged in the death of Aiden Leos and are awaiting trial for a shooting that authorities described as road rage, set off by a lane change.
City News Service contributed to this report.
