A reward fund has grown to more than $300,000 in the search for suspects in the apparent road-rage slaying of a 6-year-old boy in Southern California.
The “Who Shot Aiden?” effort stood at $325,000 by early Friday evening, a little more than a week after Aiden Leos was gunned down in the back seat of a car driven by his mother on State Route 55 near Chapman Avenue in the city of Orange, officials said.
The boy, in a booster seat, and his mom were headed north on the Costa Mesa Freeway when a shot was fired about 8 a.m. PT May 21, possibly from a white Volkswagen Golf SportWagen, authorities said.
The boy, on his way to kindergarten, told his mother, “Mommy, my tummy hurts,” immediately after he was shot, the family said.
The Golf had non-tinted windows and appeared to be a 2018 or 2019 model, authorities said. Two people were inside. The car was last seen heading toward eastbound State Route 91 shortly after the shooting, which investigators have labeled a case of road rage.
The attack happened about eight miles east of Disneyland and more than 30 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
“Please if you saw anything, anything at all, any dashcam footage or something suspicious, please come forward,” the boy’s sister Alexis Cloonan pleaded on Thursday.
Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, who represents the location where Aiden was shot, urged constituents to keep their ears open for any clues that might help investigators.
“Maybe you’re hearing a neighbor, an acquaintance, talk about this horrible thing that they heard about that happened, that they know who did (it), whatever it happens to be, come forward,” Wagner said.