SIMI VALLEY : Gunfire From Car Wounds Hitchhiker

A Kansas City, Mo., man hitchhiking on a California 118 on-ramp in Simi Valley was struck once during a volley of gunfire directed at him from a passing car, police said Friday.

Jeffrey Coleman, 24, was trying to hitch a ride on the eastbound freeway on-ramp at Kuehner Drive about 8 p.m. Thursday when he saw a dark Mercedes or BMW enter the ramp, according to police reports.

Coleman told police he saw several people inside the car and heard the sound of someone yelling at him and then about three shots, one of which hit him in the left shoulder.

“I heard something, I heard the noise--three of them--and then that was it,” Coleman said from his hospital bed Friday. “Then I noticed that I was in pain and everything.”

The car sped onto the freeway and Coleman was able to walk down the ramp to a food mart on Kuehner Drive, where he was helped by an unidentified woman who called police. “I just kind of stumbled down to the store,” he said. “I fell down a couple times.”

Coleman, who said he is visiting friends and relatives here, was taken to Simi Valley hospital in good condition and was released Friday.