The gun and car used in the road-rage death of a six-year-old last month on the 55 Freeway in Orange have been found, the California Highway Patrol said Monday, June 7, just hours after Aiden Leos was buried.
District Attorney Todd Spitzer said the driver and passenger will make their first court appearances in the case on Tuesday to face yet-announced charges.
An emotional Spitzer said this crime has gripped the community.
“It could have happened to any one of us,” he said. “I’ve thrown gestures out myself. … I know we are all torn up about (the boy’s death).”
The district attorney, at the CHP’s Santa Ana headquarters during a Monday press conference, mentioned how he previously had asked the suspects in a May 27 public statement to come forward, which would be considered in their prosecution, and they did not.
Now, he said, the court system will take care of justice.
“Clearly, there are different legal theories and potentially different charges with respect to the driver as opposed to the front-seat passenger, and we will be more than willing to explain those when we decide what charges to bring and what the evidence shows,” the district attorney said.
A toy teddy bear sits on a table outside of the Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda following the memorial service for Aiden Leos, the 6-year-old boy who was shot and killed on his way to kindergarten in his mother’s car on the 55 Freeway in Orange on May 21 in a road rage incident, on Saturday, June 5, 2021, in Yorba Linda. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Family members and pallbearers walk with the casket of Aiden Leos, the 6-year-old boy who was shot and killed on his way to kindergarten in his mother’s car on the 55 Freeway in Orange on May 21 in a road rage incident, as they leave the Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda following a memorial service on Saturday, June 5, 2021, in Yorba Linda. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Alexis Cloonan, left, and Aiden Leos, right, take a photo with their mother, who was driving Aiden to school when the road rage shooting took place Friday morning, May 21. (Courtesy of Carla Lacy)
A man sits beneath a banner hanging on the railing of the Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda for Aiden Leos, the 6-year-old boy who was shot and killed on his way to kindergarten in his mother’s car on the 55 Freeway in Orange on May 21 in a road rage incident, just prior to the memorial service on Saturday, June 5, 2021, in Yorba Linda. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The cover of the program for the memorial service for Aiden Leos, the 6-year-old boy who was shot and killed on his way to kindergarten in his mother’s car on the 55 Freeway in Orange on May 21 in a road rage incident, held at the Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda on Saturday, June 5, 2021, in Yorba Linda. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Aiden Leos, left, had just celebrated his sixth birthday with family members, May 12, including his sister, Alexis Cloonan. (Courtesy of Carla Lacy)
Kris Eszlinger, left, and Brian Hyman hang a “who shot Aiden?” sign on the Walnut Avenue bridge over The 55 Freeway in Orange, CA, on Thursday, May 27, 2021. The pair are hanging a total of 25 signs on bridges in Orange County, Los Angeles County and the Inland Empire. Aiden Leos, 6, was sitting in the backseat of his mother’s car as she drove him to kindergarten when another driver shot him in an apparent road rage incident. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Family members of 6-year-old Aiden Leos stand at a makeshift memorial on the Walnut Avenue overpass at the 55-freeway in Orange on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 to announce the reward for tips that lead to the arrest of a suspect have risen to $200,000. After county officials pledged to triple the previous $50,000 reward a local business send a letter to the family pledging an additional $50,000. Family members pictured are, from left, Cherrie Cloonan, John Cloonan, Carole Ybanez, Alexis Cloonan and Carly Lacy. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Aiden Leos, 6, was seated in a booster seat in the back seat of his mother’s car when a suspect shot at them on the 55 Freeway in Orange. Aiden later died at a hospital. (Courtesy of Carly Lacy)
Mourners embrace outside of the Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda as they arrive for the memorial service for Aiden Leos, the 6-year-old boy who was shot and killed on his way to kindergarten in his mother’s car on the 55 Freeway in Orange on May 21 in a road rage incident, on Saturday, June 5, 2021, in Yorba Linda. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Marcus Anthony Eriz, 24, and Wynne Lee, 23, were arrested about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, June 6, at their Costa Mesa apartment after authorities, acting on a tip, followed them home, sources said. The arrests occurred a day after Aiden’s funeral service in Yorba Linda and a day before his burial.
The station wagon and the gun were found in a different location than where the couple was arrested, but officials did not disclose when and where they were found, nor how long they conducted surveillance on the suspects prior to the arrests.
The pair were being held in Orange County Jail on $1 million bail each, jail records show.
They work in Highland in San Bernardino County, sources said.
CHP officials executed search warrants Sunday, authorities said. Those searches continued into Monday, said Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Authorities said they believe that on May 21 Lee was driving and Eriz was the shooter. The pair allegedly made an unsafe lane change, prompting a rude gesture by Aiden’s mother, Joanna Cloonan, as she drove Aiden to Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda for school.
After the dispute, the suspects’ car pulled behind Cloonan’s silver sedan and, authorities said, Eriz fired at least one shot from an unknown-caliber pistol as the cars, going north on the 55, approached the Chapman Avenue ramps.
The bullet pierced the trunk and Aiden’s booster seat and went into his back. The boy died at a hospital.
Nearly a week later, CHP officials released a photo, apparently from a surveillance camera, of a white Volkswagen Golf SportWagon taken shortly after the shooting as it headed eastbound on the 91 Freeway toward Riverside County.
The photo generated a high volume of tips from the public, the CHP has said. A reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects, from government and private sources, has continued to swell, reaching $500,000 by Friday, June 4.
After the arrests were made Sunday, and again on Monday, authorities did not reveal how the suspects were identified and declined to talk about what will happen with the reward money.
On Sunday, Aiden was remembered as a loving boy who wanted to make others feel good.
“He was given a gift from God to heal people’s hearts,” Joanna Cloonan said during the service.
