Six-year-old shot in highway road rage incident on way to school
Orange County, California - "Mommy, my tummy hurts." These were Aiden Leos final words, just moments after he had been shot in the stomach.
Alexis Cloonan, his older sister, shared the tragic story with ABC7. The boy had just celebrated his sixth birthday two weeks before.
The tragic incident occurred on May 21 between 7:55 AM and 8:15 AM on the 55 Freeway in Orange.
Aiden was sitting in a booster seat in the back of his mother's silver Chevrolet sedan on the way to school when they were suddenly cut off by a newer model white sedan.
The little boy's mother got angry and flipped the driver off, according to a witness who spoke to the Orange County Register.
Suddenly, one of the occupants of the white car pulled out a gun and fired at the Chevrolet.
One bullet "went through the trunk and right through my nephew," said John Cloonan, Aiden's uncle.
Boy dies in hospital shortly afterwards
Alexis Cloonan revealed that her mother desperately held the boy while "he was bleeding on her."
"And then he started turning blue, and that's when the ambulance took him," she explained. "And that's the last time my mom saw him alive."
Shortly after, the boy was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
"Please help us find the people who did this to my little brother," Alexis Cloonan pleaded.
"If your vehicle has a dashcam, we're asking you, please provide that video," CHP Officer Florentino Olivera said. "If you were driving by, you saw something that was not right, call it in – even if it wasn't something major."
The CHP's Santa Ana office can be reached at (714) 567-6000 for any tips and information. A $200,000 reward is being offered.
Cover photo: GoFundMe/Screenshot/6yr Old Aiden Leos Killed in Road Rage Shooting