Driver Hurt in Freeway Shooting

A 32-year-old man on his way home to Lakeside was shot Thursday afternoon as he drove east on California 94, in the first freeway shooting in San Diego since January, 1989.

Christopher Bonta, 32, was in surgery Thursday night for a wound in the abdomen, a Mercy Hospital spokeswoman said. Before surgery, he had been listed in serious but stable condition.

Police said Bonta appeared to have been wounded by a bullet from a small-caliber handgun about 5:10 p.m.

“We don’t know if somebody was hiding in the bushes aiming at cars or was half a mile away just playing with a gun,” said Tim Jones of the San Diego Police Department.

Officers searched bushes on the freeway’s south side without result, Jones said.

Before being taken to the hospital, Bonta told police he was driving his van east on California 94, just past the Euclid Avenue exit and in the far right-hand lane, when he heard a noise and felt a pain in his abdomen.

Doubled over, Bonta managed to take the Kelton Road exit and drive to the Cox Cable San Diego parking lot, 5149 Federal Blvd. He parked the van, stumbled out and was helped by security guards, who called police, Jones said.

Jones noted that, until Thursday, random gunshots in that area had been confined to areas north of the freeway. The Cox office building even has bullet marks in its side, he said.

Freeway shootings have occurred regularly in Southern California for a decade, California Highway Patrol officials say. The most publicized series of shootings occurred in the summer of 1987, resulting in criminal charges against 16 people.

In San Diego, there have been several freeway shootings in the last few years. Thursday’s incident appears to be the most serious; others resulted in property damage or minor injuries.

One incident occurred in August, 1988, in the same area as Thursday’s shooting, on Kelton Road where it passes over California 94. Before Thursday, the most recent freeway shooting had occurred on Jan. 19, 1989, on California 163 near Friars Road.