A chaotic Southern California shooting spree Tuesday that traveled from a neighborhood onto the freeway left four dead, including the shooter, police said.
Ali Syed, 20, an unemployed, part-time student, shot and killed a woman in her Ladera Ranch home and two commuters during carjackings, shot up vehicles on a Southern California freeway and committed suicide as police closed in on him, authorities said.
The shootings began at 4:45 a.m., when authorities responded to a call in Ladera Ranch, about 55 miles southeast of Los Angeles. They found the woman shot multiple times.
The gunman then headed north and carjacked a Dodge pickup truck in Tustin, about 20 miles away. The driver was not hurt, but a bystander was hit by gunfire and taken to a hospital.
The suspect then began firing at vehicles in the area. Three people reported being targeted, including one who suffered a minor injury, police said.
When the truck got low on gas, the gunman stopped at State Route 55 and McFadden Avenue in Santa Ana, stole a BMW and killed the driver, police said.
The shooter then drove to a Tustin business called Micro Center and carjacked another small truck, killing one person and wounding another, Garaven said.
Officers trailed the gunman to Orange, a city about five miles away.
As they closed in, the man got out of the vehicle at a busy intersection and shot himself, police said. A shotgun was recovered at the scene, Associated Press reports.
The shooter lived at the residence where the first victim was slain, police said. The woman killed at the home was in her 20s. She was not identified and is not related to the shooter, authorities said.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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