Driver Held in Shooting on Freeway

Daily News, Los Angeles
Published: 03/19/2009
TOLUCA LAKE – Police have arrested a 23-year-old man who they said shot a
motorist in the hand on the 101 Freeway during a road rage incident that
spilled over to local streets and blocked traffic for hours.
Sarkis Ambartsumyan was caught on foot Tuesday in an alley east of Lankershim
Boulevard and north of Moorpark Street after crashing, then ditching his car
with two flat tires at a body shop, said Lt. Brian Wendling, Los Angeles
Police Department.
Ambartsumyan is in custody and the other driver, whose name was not released,
was being treated at a local hospital.
The afternoon road rage chase and shoot-out snarled traffic for hours Tuesday
afternoon and evening.
Police are still investigating what triggered the 3:45 p.m. confrontation, in
which Ambartsumyan reportedly shot at the other car, followed it to an exit
ramp and fired again, striking the driver in the hand.
Ambartsumyan sped off but the wounded man followed him in his car and a chase
began, police said.
Wendling said the shooting suspect crashed his Infiniti into a streetlight at
Cahuenga Boulevard and Bloomfield Street, puncturing two tires.
The wounded man stopped the chase after the crash. But Ambartsumyan puttered
away in his damaged car and pulled into a local body shop. Wendling said a
Los Angeles Fire Department official followed Ambartsumyan to the shop and
confronted him.
Ambartsumyan ran off and headed north down Lankershim Boulevard, police said.
The fire official pointed him out to police who caught him in the alley,
Wendling said.
An initial search of his car and the area by officers and police dogs did not
turn up a gun, but an officer who had just come on duty took a second look
in the car and found a gun in a hidden compartment below a plate on the
armrest of the driver’s door, authorities said.
AP Mobile News Network.