Hunt On Near Freeway for Sniper Who Fires at Autos : Crime: Dozens of vehicles have been hit in mystery attacks. So far no one has been injured.

Los Angeles police crisscrossed the mid-city area near the Santa Monica Freeway Friday night, searching for a mystery sniper who has fired what authorities believe is a pellet gun at dozens of cars this week, shattering windshields but so far not harming any motorists.

The attacks began sporadically several weeks ago but have now become an almost nightly problem with dozens of vehicles struck, police said.

Two undercover police cars and a police helicopter responded to a call early Friday evening of freeway assailants--it turned out to be teen-agers throwing what appeared to be rocks or eggs onto the freeway. As in past attacks, the youths hid in bushes on the freeway embankment as they aimed at passing vehicles. Nobody was caught.

Police Sgt. Steve Stein said, “From the time somebody calls in to say where these guys are, these guys can get a long way away before we arrive.”

Authorities were not certain if those youths were also responsible for the series of attacks. No repeat of the pellet gun sniping was reported early Friday.

On Thursday, shots broke windows on four vehicles on the freeway, frightening the motorists but leaving them otherwise unharmed, authorities said.

The vehicles were exiting at Fairfax between 8 and 9 p.m. when motorists heard the shots and then found their windows broken, Sgt. Tom Johnson said.

“It looks like it was probably a pellet gun,” Johnson said.

Lt. Bruce Crosley, of the Wilshire Division, said the sniper has struck several times this week along a four-mile stretch of freeway, most of the time between La Brea Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard.

“They keep moving on us, and that freeway has several underground pedestrian tunnels where they can hide, so we haven’t caught up with them yet,” Crosley said.

Authorities had not determined Friday if the sniping was the work of pranksters or someone attempting to cause serious harm.

But Crosley said: “I would suppose it is kids.”

One officer complained that the snipers are “even shooting at cars that have children in the back. I’d like to take them and bounce them on their heads a couple of times.”

Stein said there have been no accidents caused by the attacks, but “it’s only a matter of time before somebody gets hurt.”

He said officers believe it is youngsters because most of the attacks “have occurred early, before 10 p.m.