A district attorney in California has issued a plea to the killer who shot dead a six-year-old boy during a road rage attack, saying: ‘The longer this goes on… the less sympathy I’ll have’.
Aiden Leos was fatally shot while sitting in the backseat of his mother Joanna Cloonan’s car as they drove along the 55 Freeway in Orange County en route to his kindergarten on May 21.
Police have been hunting for the gunman ever since and a reward to track them down has now surged to $400,000.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer on Sunday night urged the gunman to turn themselves in.
Aiden Leos was fatally shot while sitting in the backseat of his mother’s car on 55 Freeway in Orange County, California on May 21
Police have released multiple images of the white Volkswagen Golf Sportswagen in a bid to track the suspects down. The reward to track them down has now surged to $400,000
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer on Sunday night urged the gunman to turn themselves in
‘The longer this goes on… the less sympathy I’ll have. You killed a 6 year old boy for God’s sake. Come forward. Turn yourself in,’ he tweeted.
The road rage ordeal unfolded at about 8.10am on May 21 when the driver of a white Volkswagen Golf Sportswagen cut Aiden’s mother off in the carpool lane.
According to witnesses, the boy’s mother stuck up her middle finger at the driver.
Someone in the other car then suddenly opened fire and a bullet struck Aiden in the back.
Aiden’s mother pulled over to the side of the road and cradled the little boy until an off-duty police office stopped to perform CPR and paramedics arrived.
The boy was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators believe a man and a woman were inside the Volkswagen at the time of the shooting. They believe the man, who was in the passenger seat, fired the fatal shot.
They have released multiple images of the car in a bid to track them down.
The reward to track down the suspects has now grown from an initial $50,000 to $400,000.
Police say a gunman opened fire on Aiden’s mother’s car during a road rage incident. They say the little boy suffered a gunshot wound to the back. Pictured above is a bullet hole in the car
Aiden Leos was fatally shot while sitting in the backseat of his mother Joanna Cloonan’s car as they drove along the 55 Freeway in Orange County en route to his school on May 21. The boy is pictured with his mother and sister Alexis
A GoFundMe fundraiser started by Aiden’s family made up the initial $50,000. Since then, the district attorney, local businesses and two Orange County supervisors have all contributed to boost the reward.
In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America in the days after the shooting, Aiden’s mother described her son’s final moments.
‘I was driving on the freeway, and there was a car behind me that cut me off abruptly,’ she said.
‘I was in the carpool lane with my son, and as I started to merge away from them, I heard a really loud noise, and my son said, ‘ow’, and I had to pull over, and he got shot.’
She said his final words were: ‘Mommy, my tummy hurts.
‘They took my son’s life away. He was beautiful, and he was kind, and he was precious, and you killed him for no reason. And I want to find them, and I want there to be justice to be served for my son.
‘He sang all the time, and the children at the preschool, everybody loved him. He’s a once in a lifetime kid. I miss him, and the person that did this can’t get away with it.’
The reward to track down the suspects has now grown from an initial $50,000 to $400,000. Pictured above is a memorial set up on an overpass near when Aiden was gunned down
Aiden’s sister Alexis is pictured above at a memorial that was erected on the overpass near where the little boy was shot