Boy, four, killed in Los Angeles road rage incident after driver pulled alongside victim's family and started shooting

A tragic incident unfolded Friday evening in northern Los Angeles when a man shot a gun into a family's car on the freeway, killing a four-year-old boy.

The child was seated in the back of his family's car when he was struck by gunfire in the upper body, The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department says.   

His parents rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead, KTLA reported.

Police say the fatal shooting was an instance of uncontrolled road rage.

Law enforcement officers from the Lancaster sheriff's station responded to reports of a shooting at an intersection on the Sierra Highway just before 7.30pm Friday night.

Investigators began working on the case and located the suspect's vehicle close to the crime scene.

Two people, who were not identified, were arrested on suspicion of murder. They were described as a 29-year-old black man and a 27-year-old white woman.

There are no other suspects and no one else was injured in the incident, police say.

Authorities say that the car the suspects were driving cut off the family's car near Sierra Highway and East Avenue J in Lancaster.

The move apparently began a chase that spanned several side streets in the area.

As they were being followed, the driver of the family's car slowed the vehicle down, allowing the suspects to pull up alongside the passenger door side of the car and begin shooting.

The victim's name was not immediately released following his death. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner is working no an autopsy report.

Anyone with additional information about the shooting is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. 

Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris called the killing 'unimaginable.'

'This could have been any of our families. It could have been any of us,' he told a local news station.