Universal City : Motorist, 19, Shot on Hollywood Freeway

A 19-year-old West Hills motorist was wounded early Monday when shots were fired at him and four friends from a passing car on the Hollywood Freeway, Los Angeles police said.

The man was hit in the side by a high-caliber pistol bullet, and is in serious condition at a local hospital, Detective Frank Estrada said.

The incident began about 2:30 a.m., when the five friends, all teen-agers from the San Fernando Valley, were cruising through Downtown Los Angeles in a 1995 Acura Integra, trying to find a bar, Estrada said. “I don’t know what they expected to find open,” he said.

A white Honda Accord pulled past their car and a youth inside asked them what gang they were with, Estrada said. The Valley youths drove away, and got on the Hollywood Freeway.

But as they passed the Vine Street exit heading toward Universal City, the Accord drove past them, and a passenger fired several shots, one striking the driver of the Integra. The Accord sped off as the shooting victim, with the help of a passenger, steered off the freeway and called for help from a mini-market.

Estrada said the victim and his companions are not gang members.