The killing of 6-year-old Aiden Leos on an Orange County freeway is a haunting and cautionary story. The collection of occasions that led to the loss of life of the little boy presents an object lesson in why drivers ought to by no means, ever overreact after they understand they’re being disrespected on the highway. Make this your mantra, people: Simply let it go. Simply let it go.
On Might 21, 2021, Aiden’s mother, Joanna Cloonan, left their Costa Mesa dwelling to take her son to high school at Calvary Chapel Pre-College in Yorba Linda. They had been driving north on the 55 Freeway of their Chevy Sonic, Aiden strapped into his automotive seat in again.
What occurred subsequent that morning was silly, pointless and shameful, and a horrific reminder that moving into tiffs whereas driving can have tragic, ruinous penalties.
In line with the Orange County Register, a Volkswagen Golf pushed by Wynne Lee sped up behind Cloonan within the carpool lane, sped round her, then moved again into the lane in entrance of Cloonan’s automotive, chopping Cloonan off and brake-checking her. “Lee then flashed a peace signal that the mom took as lower than real,” the report stated.
As an alternative of letting it go, Cloonan angrily pulled up subsequent to the VW and flipped the couple off. Huge mistake.
Lee’s passenger, Marcus Eriz, reached into the again seat for his gun.
“She remembered Eriz smiling at her from the passenger seat,” wrote my colleague Christopher Goffard, “then listening to a loud sound as she pulled away. It was a single bullet from Eriz’s gun, passing by way of the trunk and thru her son’s physique.”
The bullet hit Aiden from the again, ripping by way of his liver and lung, earlier than piercing his coronary heart and exiting his physique. He bled to loss of life on the freeway shoulder whereas his mom cried hysterically and a CHP officer tried to avoid wasting him.
On Thursday, Eriz, 26, was rightfully convicted of second-degree homicide and capturing into an occupied car. The jury took solely two hours to determine. He faces as much as 40 years in jail and is to be sentenced April 12.
Lee, his girlfriend, might be tried in a while lesser costs.
The virtually unspeakable irony on the coronary heart of this case is what Eriz instructed investigators about why he was carrying a gun within the first place: “Folks have been appearing loopy across the freeway.”
A self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one.
Final March, the nonprofit group Everytown for Gun Security reported that highway rage “capturing deaths and accidents proceed to pile up” although the spike in gun violence that occurred in the course of the peak of the COVID pandemic had subsided. The group’s analysis and coverage arm analyzed gun violence information and decided that the variety of highway rage accidents and violent incidents involving weapons has elevated yearly since 2018. “These incidents translate to an individual being shot and both injured or killed in a highway rage incident in 2022 each 16 hours.” Typically talking, states with probably the most lax gun legal guidelines have the very best charge of gun-related highway rage incidents.
In Might, a younger man described by his associates as a music-loving surfer from Jordan was killed in Marina del Rey after getting out of his automotive at a stoplight to speak to a driver who had reduce off the car he was driving in with a pal. The motive force blew a gap in his chest and, in accordance with the Los Angeles Police Division, there was no arrest.
In December, 4-year-old Gor Adamyan was killed in Lancaster after his dad and mom, on the way in which to the grocery retailer, by accident reduce off a automotive whose driver then started following the household and harassed them earlier than capturing on the automotive. Gor died in what has been described as a “hail of bullets.” The suspected gunman, Byron Burkhart, 29, has been charged with homicide, tried homicide and capturing into an occupied automotive. If convicted, he faces life in jail.
Anybody who has ever gotten behind the wheel in metropolis or freeway site visitors has skilled highway rage in some unspecified time in the future — theirs or another person’s.
“It may occur to any considered one of us,” stated Orange County prosecutor Todd Spitzer, as he commented on Eriz’s conviction. “All of us drive the freeways of Southern California. We’ve all gotten upset at different motorists; different motorists have gotten upset at us. I’ve thrown some gestures round myself.”
If I’m being sincere, so have I. I do a few of my greatest swearing behind the wheel. I could often drive aggressively — say, gunning it to get forward of a driver who decides to hurry up as a substitute of let me in when I’m altering lanes. I even have what are undoubtedly imaginary energy struggles with different drivers on a regular basis, which make me ashamed of myself. I typically catch myself questioning how youthful, much less mature and/or testosterone-fueled drivers restrain themselves once I, an older, presumably calmer driver, can get so teed off behind the wheel.
However I don’t drive to punish. I’ve by no means braked in entrance of somebody to show them a lesson. I’ve by no means rolled down my window to yell at anybody. I might by no means take the prospect, as a result of, as Eriz put it, individuals act loopy across the freeway.
AAA, the membership group for individuals who drive, affords ideas for avoiding highway rage bother: Don’t make eye contact with offended drivers; don’t make hand gestures; don’t reply to aggression with aggression; and keep in your automotive in case you are bodily confronted.
By far their greatest piece of recommendation is that this: “Be tolerant and forgiving. Assume that it’s not private. The opposite driver may be having a extremely unhealthy day.”
Or, I might add, may be carrying a gun.
