FREEWAY SHOOTER HITS VALLEY MAN WOUNDED VICTIM SAYS GUNFIRE CAME FROM SMALL BLACK CAR.

Byline: Daily News staff and wires

NORTH HILLS - A 19-year-old man became the San Fernando Valley's first victim in the recent rash of freeway shootings when gunfire hit him three times on Sunday as he drove north on the San Diego Freeway between Roscoe Boulevard and Nordhoff Street, police said.

The motorist, whose name was not released, was listed in stable condition and is expected to survive. He told police that the gunfire came from a small, black car carrying five male Latinos with shaved heads.

The car pulled alongside his, and one of its occupants opened fire just after 1 a.m. on Sunday, said Lt. John Del Vecchio of the Los Angeles Police Department's new Mission community station.

The shooting was the first case for the new station, which had opened on Saturday, Del Vecchio said.

The wounded motorist got off the freeway and drove a few miles before flagging down paramedics at Devonshire Street and Balboa Boulevard about 1:10 a.m, the lieutenant said.

The Granada Hills Community Hospital and Los Angeles Fire Station 87 are located at the intersection, and police believe the wounded driver may have been trying to drive to one of the two.

The motorist was later taken to the Providence Holy Cross Medical Center.

Police haven't made any arrests and encourage anyone with information to call the Mission station at [phone].

It was the latest in a series of shootings along Southern California freeways in recent weeks.

--Later Sunday, KNBC (Channel 4) reported shots were fired at a car on the Foothill Freeway near Hubbard Street in Sylmar, but Del Vecchio said police never confirmed the shooting. KNBC said the shots missed the car.

--On April 24, a 33-year-old motorist was wounded on the northbound Costa Mesa Freeway near 17th Street, close to the place where Jake Tuason, 26, of Fontana was fatally shot March 12.

--Two other people were killed recently on the Harbor Freeway in South Los Angeles.

--Michael Livingston, 26, of Long Beach was shot in the head near Manchester Avenue on March 29.

--On April 13, James Wiggins, 47, was shot near Redondo Beach Boulevard as he and another man were headed to Bible study.

--Ricky Smith, 32, of San Bernardino was shot to death at a freeway interchange in Riverside County on April 22.

A veteran California Highway Patrol supervisor with a background in freeway shooting investigations recently told the Daily News that the CHP and other agencies have repeatedly asked the California Department of California to use its traffic-monitoring cameras for crime surveillance.

Caltrans officials later said they would consider adding recorders to the cameras to help law enforcement officers.