As the case against a couple charged in the freeway shooting death of an Orange County boy moves through the court process, officials have set up a dedicated hotline to gather more information about other freeway shootings possibly connected to the suspects.
The hotline was announced Saturday by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, in conjunction with the California Highway Patrol.
“The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is asking anyone who had any interactions with a 2018/2019 white Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen on the 55 freeway in Orange County or the 91 freeway in Orange and Riverside counties involving shots being fired or a gun being brandished to come forward,” the DA’s office said in a news release. “The incidents would have occurred between December 2020 and June 2021.”
Marcus Anthony Eriz, 24, and his 23-year-old girlfriend, Wynne Lee, have been charged in the road rage shooting death of 6-year-old Aiden Leos on May 21. Eriz is facing one felony count of murder, one felony count of shooting into an occupied vehicle, and two felony enhancements of the personal discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and death.
Lee has been charged with one felony count of accessory after the fact and one misdemeanor count of having a concealed firearm in a vehicle.
They both pleaded not guilty Friday.
This week prosecutors alleged that the couple also brandished a weapon at the driver of a blue Tesla on the 91 Freeway near Corona in a second road rage type incident a few days after Leos was fatally shot while sitting in the backseat of his mother’s car while she drove him to kindergarten along the 55 Freeway in Orange.
Authorities believe the hotline could possibly gather more information from the public related to other freeway shootings reported over the past several months in Orange County and the Inland Empire.
Tips can be called into the hotline at 714-834-7000. Information about the suspects and prior firearm brandishing incidents can also be emailed to tips@da.ocgov.com.
Eriz, who is alleged to be the gunman who fatally shot Leos, is currently being held without bail. Lee, who prosecutors said was behind the wheel when Eriz opened fire, is currently being held on $500,000 bail.