The sister of Aiden Leos, a six-year-old who was shot and killed Friday in an apparent road rage incident in Orange, California, described her brother's harrowing death and is pleading for help to find the suspect.
"There was road rage on the freeway and someone pulled out a gun and shot my little brother in the stomach, and he said, 'Mommy, my tummy hurts,'" said Aiden's sister, Alexis Cloonan, according to KABC.
"So she went and she picked him up and he was bleeding on her, she had blood on her clothes," Cloonan said. "And then he started turning blue, and that's when the ambulance took him. And that's the last time my mom saw him alive."
According to a statement from the California Highway Patrol (CHP), Leos was shot and killed at approximately 8 a.m. on Friday morning. At the time, the six-year-old boy was riding in the back seat as his mother was driving him to kindergarten.
Police have not yet identified a suspect, but said Friday that the driver was possibly in a white Volkswagen wagon and was last seen traveling northbound on SR-55 from Chapman Avenue. A description of the suspect was not immediately available.
The suspected motorist was said to have cut the vehicle off on the northbound side of State Route 55, in Orange, southeast of Los Angeles. In response, Aiden's mother reportedly reacted by flipping the driver off. A gunman who was believed to have been in the passenger seat of the suspect's vehicle then opened fire into their car and struck the boy in the back.
"Please help us find the people who did this to my little brother," Cloonan said Friday. "He's only 6 and he was so sweet. He was a very, very loving boy. So, please help us find who did this to him."
The family said Aiden's mother reported seeing a woman driving the vehicle and a man in the passenger seat, but was not sure who fired the shot toward her car, KACB reported.
"She (Aiden's mother) was merging to the right side to get away from this person, and as you can see if you go online and look at the photos, there's one bullet shot in the trunk that went through the trunk and right through my nephew," John Cloonan, Aiden's uncle, said.
"My sister has been through a lot. She's a single mom. And you took her son away. You took her boy away," John Cloonan added. "This boy was full of love and joy and laughter."
CHP Officer Florentino Olivera asked the public to come forward with any information that may be related to the shooting.
"If your vehicle has a dash-cam, we're asking you, please provide that video," Olivera said. "If you were driving by, you saw something that was not right, call it in—even if it wasn't something major."
A GoFundMe page was established Friday for Aiden's mother and to help with her child's burial costs.
"Six year old Aiden was tragically killed in a road rage incident in Orange, CA on 5/21/21 and died in his mother's arms as the suspect was aiming for her! This is my granddaughter in the photo and Aiden is her brother. Thank you for your loving support," Carla Lacy, the fundraiser's organizer, wrote online.
As of Saturday, the family had raised over $69,000.
Newsweek contacted CHP for an additional comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.
