On April 27, 2021, a shooting and car pursuit started outside the USC campus. In total, there were five different shootings, and two people were found dead. The cause of the shooting is still unknown.

Around 12:55 am was when the first shooting happened. The gunman, Carlos Lopez, was driving a white Jeep when he shot a man in his car in the exposition park area, who survived.

Around 1:05 am at W 28th Street and Figueroa Street, he pulled into a Starbucks, opening fire on a young couple. The driver, Alexis Carbajal, was killed, while his new wife survived. 

Twenty minutes later on Figueroa Street and 7th Street, he shot at a black Escalade, killing 41-year-old uber driver Mingzhi Zhu. The cops arrived to find Lopez driving away, leading on a pursuit that lasted nearly three hours. It happened to go through the 10, 60, and 57 freeway, where the gunman shot at two other cars during the chase. The pursuit finally finished on the 91 freeway when a spike strip successfully flattened the suspect’s tires.

Carlos Lopez refused to surrender, even though the police made contact to persuade him to come out. When SWAT team members tried to send in tear gas, the suspect shot at them at around 5:00 am. Officers fired back and struck the driver, according to Michael Moore, the police chief of LAPD. Lopez was killed, while no officers were injured.

In an interview from the OC Register, Lieutenant Raul, a member of the Los Angeles Police Department, says, “We are still trying to figure out why he shot people just driving their cars.”