Two men were killed after shooting each other in a road rage incident outside Los Angeles over the weekend in front of one the victim’s young kids.
The incident began around 8 p.m. Saturday in Highland, Calif., roughly 65 miles east of L.A., the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said.
Jonathan McConnell, 38, was allegedly splitting lanes while riding a motorcycle down a freeway when he hit a sedan being driven by Aaron Harris, 37, whose two children, ages 2 and 5, were sitting in the backseat.
Instead of pulling over to the shoulder, McConnell left the freeway to flee the scene and Harris followed him to the parking lot of local bar Joy’s Lounge.
While in his car, Harris began yelling threats at McConnell. When McConnell approached the car, Harris shot at him and McConnell returned fire.
Both men suffered gunshot wounds and were taken to the hospital where they later died.
The two children in Harris’ car were not wounded in the incident. An unnamed male bystander who was sitting in front of the bar was shot in the hand.
“We all get angry on the roads sometimes, especially these days there’s so much traffic out there and so many things going on,” Mara Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s department, told KABC. “But this is a great example of how things can go so wrong so quickly.”
Between 2014 and 2023, road rage shootings increased by more than 400%, from 92 to 481, according to the nonprofit organization Gun Violence Archive.
An analysis from Forbes found nearly 33% of drivers had experienced road rage from another driver in the last year. The report ranked California as the state with the most confrontational drivers.
