At an afternoon press conference Monday, California Highway Patrol officials are expected to provide more details following the arrests of two suspects in connection with the road rage shooting that killed a 6-year-old boy on the 55 Freeway in Orange last month.
On Sunday evening the CHP announced that Marcus Anthony Eriz, 24, and Wynne Lee, 23, had been arrested at their home in Costa Mesa. The pair were expected to be charged with murder, the CHP said, and were each being held on $1 million bail.
Aiden Leos was fatally shot on the morning of May 21 while seated in a booster seat in the back seat of his mother's car. She was taking him to kindergarten.
The CHP said the boy's mother, Joanna Cloonan, and the suspects were involved in a road rage incident over "a perceived unsafe lane change."
One of the suspects then fired at least once into the rear of Cloonan’s vehicle, killing Aiden, according to the CHP. The suspects then fled the scene in what officials had described as a 2018-2019 white Volkswagen Golf SportsWagen with non-tinted windows and a sunroof.
A reward offered for information leading to an arrest had grown to at least $500,000.
“On behalf of Border Division Chief Omar Watson, and the Santa Ana Area, we are deeply grateful for the professionalism and tireless commitment of our investigators who have worked on this case from day one to find those responsible for Aiden’s death,” CHP Commissioner Amanda Ray said in a statement Sunday.
CHP Border Division Chief Watson also thanked the SoCal community for its “indescribable outpouring of concern and hundreds of tips” that helped investigators find the killers.
“The Department has been in regular contact with the victim’s family and I assure you they, like us, are committed to seeing justice served,” Watson added.
The arrests came a day after the funeral service for Leos, who was remembered as a curious, affable boy with dreams of becoming an entomologist one day.
"My precious son had his life ripped away from him for absolutely no reason," Cloonan said of her child. "They took his life and my heart along with it."
The open-casket ceremony was held at Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda for family and close friends, and live-streamed online.
"It feels so wrong that you’ve been taken from us," the mother continued in delivering her emotional eulogy Saturday. "I want nothing more than to find justice, although it won’t bring you back into our arms. It makes me outraged that such a precious, beautiful soul did not get the opportunity to continue developing into a young man, starting a family of his own."
Check back for updates on this developing story.