Family Car

An 18-year-old high school student who dreamed of becoming a police officer was shot and killed by a suspected car stereo thief. It was the fourth shooting death in Oceanside in less than a month. Moises Ruiz Ortiz died late Saturday after being shot while he stood inside his family's living room. The teenager's uncle had gone outside to confront a thief apparently trying to steal a stereo from the family car, according to the victim's relatives.

A 9-year-old northern Michigan girl apparently decided she needed to get away from the house for a while. Authorities said the Charlevoix County girl hopped into the family car Thursday night and drove off on her own. She ended up in Traverse City--about 50 miles from home--where she stopped and checked into a motel, deputies said. The astonished motel owner notified police, who picked up the girl a short time later when she left the motel.

A 1-year-old child was crushed to death Sunday afternoon when his father apparently backed over him in the driveway with the family car. Westminster Police Lt. Richard Main said Chris Maghdessian died of head injuries at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center. His father had been backing out of the driveway in the 8100 block of 19th Street when the accident occurred. "This appeared to be a pure accident," Main said, adding that the father was not cited.

A reliable family car suddenly developed a tendency to lose power, leading to the discovery that it had been driven for years with two bricks of cocaine stashed in the gas tank. A Slidell family had bought the 1996 Toyota Camry from a used car lot in 1997. When the car started losing speed after years of good service, it was taken to a mechanic, who discovered two bricks of cocaine. The wrapping had apparently come loose recently.

A 15-year-old driving her family's car took officers on a high-speed chase from Irvine to Orange before she jumped out of the moving vehicle and injured herself. The teen will probably be charged with driving under the influence and evading arrest, according to a CHP dispatcher. The chase began at 9:30 p.m. Saturday after the girl's parents reportedly called the California Highway Patrol to say that she had left their Dana Point home with the family car.

Automakers have reached a deal with the U.S. government to have brake interlock systems in all new vehicles by 2010 to prevent children from accidentally shifting vehicles out of park, officials said Thursday. The interlock system, already standard on many vehicles, lets the vehicle be shifted out of park only when the brake pedal is pressed. It prevents the vehicle from unintentionally rolling. Nineteen automakers that operate in the U.S.

An Orange County jury completed its fourth day of deliberations Monday without reaching a verdict in the murder trial of Sheryl Lynn Massip, the Anaheim woman accused of running over her infant son with the family car. The jury, appealing to the court several times for assistance, has been slowed by legal questions on such topics as the difference between manslaughter and second-degree murder, the definition of "intent" and the meaning of the judge's instructions to the jury.

Three men wearing bulletproof vests invaded a Brea home, holding a woman and her teenage son at gunpoint in an attempted robbery, authorities said Friday. The men burst into the home of Madeline Villalobos, 57, in the 1600 block of Ironwood Court about 9:20 p.m. Thursday, said Brea Police Lt. Douglas Dickerson. The men, who wore jackets with elbow patches, quickly took off in their white Jeep empty-handed, Dickerson said. No one was hurt.