Gun battle sparked by road rage in Long Beach leaves one wounded, police say

A street rage-induced firefight broke out in Long Beach early Sunday morning, wounding one person and leading to the arrest of a man who police believe was involved in the car-to-car shooting, authorities said .

At least two others were injured when one of the vehicles collided with a third vehicle that was crashing into a house, police said.

Investigators are looking for a second suspect, said Brandon Fahey, a spokesman for the Long Beach Police Department.

Just after 2:30 a.m., officers drove to what they initially suspected was a traffic accident near East 7th Street and Park Avenue, where the department said they found evidence of a shooting, including bullet casings. Officers determined that the occupants of two vehicles had exchanged gunfire following an unspecified on-road incident.

After one of the vehicles collided with a pickup truck and sent it into a house, firefighters had to pull the pickup truck out of the structure.

By the time officers arrived, everyone involved in the shooting had fled, police said.

Other officers then received a report of a gunshot victim at a hospital, where they found a woman who had been riding in one of the vehicles and had been shot in the upper and lower body, the department said. Her injuries are not life-threatening, police said.

The driver, Jean Claude Lewis, a 48-year-old Long Beach resident, was arrested on suspicion of carrying a loaded firearm and driving with a suspended driver’s license, the department said.

Lewis and another passenger also suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the accident, authorities added.

Fahey said investigators were “working to establish the identity of the suspect at large,” a man who was driving the second vehicle.