‘Mommy, my tummy hurts.’ 6-year-old dies in road rage shooting, California police say
After a white Volkswagen Jetta cut her off on a Los Angeles-area freeway as she drove her son to kindergarten, Joanna Cloonan flipped off the driver.
Then shots rang out.
“Mommy, my tummy hurts,” 6-year-old Aiden Leos told his mom, according to his 15-year-old sister, Alexis Cloonan, who spoke at a press conference streamed by KTTV.
His mother pulled to the side of Highway 55 in Orange and found her son, in a booster seat in the back of her Chevy Cruze, had been shot, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“So she went and she picked him up and he was bleeding on her, she had blood on her clothes,” Alexis said at the press conference.
Joanna Cloonan collapsed in shock beside the freeway, the Orange County Register reported. An off-duty police officer and other drivers pulled over to help the boy, who was turning blue.
“And that was the last time my mom saw him alive,” Alexis said at the press conference. Aiden later died at a hospital. “She had to hold her little boy as he died.”
“They took my son’s life away,” Joanna Cloonan told “Good Morning America” on Sunday. “He was beautiful and he was kind and he was precious, and you killed him for no reason.
“He meant the world to me, and it feels like my life is over,” she said. “That was my baby. I’ve never, never thought pain like this could exist.”
“This boy was full of love and joy and laughter,” John Cloonan, Aiden’s uncle, told the Orange County Register.
“We’re never going to be whole again,” Alexis said at the press conference. “He was amazing, and I hope that they know what they took today.”
The California Highway Patrol asked that anyone with information or dash cam footage of the 8 a.m. incident come forward, KTLA reported.
CHP officials said Aiden’s death is not connected to a string of BB or pellet gun shootings on other Los Angeles highways, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“This was an isolated road rage incident,” CHP Officer Florentino Olivera told the publication.
“Please help us find the people who did this to my little brother,” Alexis said at the press conference. “He’s only 6 and he was so sweet. He was a very, very loving boy. So, please help us find who did this to him.”
The family has offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who shot Aiden, KNBC reported. Money raised by GoFundMe campaigns for the family will help finance the reward, according to the organizers.
Officers asked that anyone with tips or information contact the CHP’s Santa Ana office at (714) 567-6000.
This story was originally published May 23, 2021 at 11:32 AM with the headline "‘Mommy, my tummy hurts.’ 6-year-old dies in road rage shooting, California police say."