San Bernardino road rage incident leaves father of 5-month-old girl brain dead
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SAN BERNARDINO, CA (KCA/KCBS) — The family of a man shot in the head in an apparent road rage incident spoke out Monday in hopes that someone would come forward with information about the person responsible.
The shooting happened just after 6 p.m. Thursday on the 210 Freeway in San Bernardino between the Waterman and Del Rosa Avenue exits.
Steve Najera was driving with his girlfriend, Rebecca Rincon, and their 5-month-old daughter, Vivian, when traffic came to a sudden stop — causing Najera to brake suddenly. A car behind Najera then tried to squeeze past on the shoulder, but the driver became frustrated when they got stuck.
“The people behind us got mad, so as they came around they threw something at our car and they threw it on his side but in the back and this is where she was,” Rincon said. “So he, dad mode.”
Rincon said Najera followed the car for a short distance before catching up with the vehicle.
“He rolled down the window and said, ‘What’s up,’” she said. “And then they just shot him in the head.”
After two days at the hospital, Rincon said Najera was brain dead — being kept alive on life support so that his organs can be donated.
“He told me that if he were to die young, he would be able to help someone,” she said. “And that would make him happy.”
Rincon said she believed the suspect was a passenger in a dark grey Toyota Corolla with a lighter colored back bumper and that the shooter had gage-style ear piercings and appeared to be around the age of 20. She said the driver was a heavyset woman in her 30s or 40s and said there was another man in the back seat.
“Throw something at our car again, or get off and have some other type of altercation,” she said. “Why go straight to something so evil?”
For Rincon, the shooter took more than her boyfriend, it took her daughter’s chance to know her father.
“She loved him already,” she said. “She’s not gonna ever get to know him, and that hurts so bad.”
Anyone with information about the shooting was asked to call the California Highway Patrol – Inland Division at 909-806-2400. For those wanting to help the family, a GoFundMe page has been set up.
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