A 10-year-old boy riding in his mother’s vehicle through the Cajon Pass was shot in the head Thursday night but is expected to survive, the California Highway Patrol said.

Initial reports indicated that the car-to-car shooting on the northbound 15 Freeway may have had a road-rage connection, but Scott Parker, assistant chief at the CHP’s Inland Division, said Friday that investigators have been unable to determine a motive.

Scott Parker, Assistant Chief of the California High Patrol Inland Division, right, holds a press conference, about the shooting on the 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass, at the California High Patrol Inland Division in San Bernardino on Friday, February 8, 2019. The 10-year-old boy who was shot and wounded in the car-to-car shooting Thursday night, Feb. 7, is expected to survive. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Scott Parker, Assistant Chief of the California High Patrol Inland Division, holds a press conference, about the shooting on the 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass, at the California High Patrol Inland Division in San Bernardino on Friday, February 8, 2019. The 10-year-old boy who was shot and wounded in the car-to-car shooting Thursday night, Feb. 7, is expected to survive. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

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Members of the news media attend a press conference, about the shooting on the 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass, at the California High Patrol Inland Division in San Bernardino on Friday, February 8, 2019. The 10-year-old boy who was shot and wounded in the car-to-car shooting Thursday night, Feb. 7, is expected to survive. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Scott Parker, Assistant Chief of the California High Patrol Inland Division, holds a press conference, about the shooting on the 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass, at the California High Patrol Inland Division in San Bernardino on Friday, February 8, 2019. The 10-year-old boy who was shot and wounded in the car-to-car shooting Thursday night, Feb. 7, is expected to survive. (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

A 10-year-old boy suffered a gunshot wound when a bullet entered a car through the right rear window on the 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass on Feb. 7, 2019. (Courtesy of LoudLabs News)



Investigators say they do not have a description of the shooter or the shooter’s vehicle.

The bullet pierced the right rear window of a dark-colored BMW 5 Series about 9 p.m. north of the 215 Freeway, just south of the Cajon Boulevard/Cleghorn Road exit.

Parker asked anyone with information on the case to call the CHP at 909-383-4247.

“Sometimes the smallest bit of information gives us something to run on,” Parker said. “This is a very high priority for us.”

The driver immediately realized a shooting had occurred, Parker said, and pulled into a parking lot off Highway 138. CHP officers and firefighters treated the boy before he was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center.

There was at least one other passenger in the victim’s vehicle, but no one else was hurt. The family lives in Hesperia, the CHP said.

CHP officers shut down a portion of the freeway for a short time for the investigation and found a bullet fragment from an unknown-type firearm, Parker said.

He said he hopes the shooter surrenders to authorities.

“An innocent child has been injured,” Parker said.