(NewsNation) — Police in Los Angeles are searching for a gunman who shot at a family of four in an apparent case of road rage.
On Tuesday night, a mom with three kids ages 13, 9 and 4, was driving to church when a car started tailgating her on the freeway, even though she was driving the speed limit. The woman slowed down, so the other driver moved over at first — but then crossed back.
That’s when the woman, who did not want her identity revealed because of safety concerns, said she saw the flash of a gun.
The woman said she heard “shots like pow pow pow.”
“I just remember seeing a black gun towards my car,” she said.
The other driver shot at the mother’s car three to four times. Her 13-year-old son’s face was cut by glass that shattered when a bullet came through. The other two kids were OK, but there was so much blood from her son’s cut that the woman thought he had been shot.
“I was crying. I was yelling. I was screaming. I was scared,” the woman said.
As of Thursday evening, the gunman remained at large, NewsNation local affiliate KTLA said.
It’s just one of many road rage incidents recorded over the past year. According to the California Highway Patrol, they doubled in the state from 210 in 2019 to 471 last year.
They’re happening across the country, too. In Raleigh, North Carolina, a man was charged with shooting and injuring a pregnant woman, according to WRAL, and two weeks ago, a motorcyclist was stabbed in the chest outside of Denver, per KDVR — both allegedly because of road rage.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety, 2021 was one of the deadliest years on record for road rage shootings, with 700 incidents leading to the deaths or injuries of more than 500 people. In 2021, 44 people were shot and killed or wounded per month.