Four-year-old Gor Adamyan was shot to death during a road rage incident on Dec. 15, 2023, in Los Angeles, police say. Two suspects are in custody facing murder charges (credit: GoFundMe).
A trip to the grocery store in Los Angeles turned tragic last week when road rage suspects shot into a family’s car, killing a 4-year-old boy inside, cops say.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said the incident occurred around 7:30 p.m. on Friday in the city of Lancaster. The victims were driving near Sierra Highway and East Avenue J when the suspect vehicle cut them off and then began following them around city streets.
Eventually, the victim driver slowed down, and the suspects pulled up to their car and opened fire, police said. The boy, who was sitting in the back seat, suffered a gunshot wound in the upper torso, police said.
The boy’s parents, who were not injured, rushed the boy to the hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.
Cops located the suspect vehicle in the area and arrested a man and woman: Byron Burkhart, 29, and Alexandria Gentile, 27. They are at the Los Angeles County Jail on suspicion of murder with formal charges pending. Investigators have not identified the shooter.
The victim was identified as Gor Adamyan. A GoFundMe page described Adamyan as “a vibrant four-year-old boy whose life was tragically cut short.”
Family spokesperson Miguel Coronado told the Los Angeles Times that the shooter fired eight times into the family’s vehicle, three of which hit Adamyan.
Coronado said Adamyan’s parents were initially going to leave the boy at home with his 16-year-old brother but he began to cry and said he wanted to go so his parents let him come.
“They are devastated they took him with them,” Coronado told the Times.
In an interview with Los Angeles ABC affiliate KABC, Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris called the tragedy “unimaginable.”
“This could have been any of our families. It could have been any of us,” he said.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
