Kevin Scott Highfield, BHS 1981

Kevin Scott Highfield, BHS 1981

Local News in Brief: Sunland Gas Station Argument Leaves 1 Dead, Another Injured

Los Angeles Times, December 23, 1988 

An argument at a Sunland gas station erupted into gunfire that left one man dead and another critically injured, Los Angeles police said Thursday.

Kevin Scott Highfield, 24, of Tujunga was killed about 10 p.m. Wednesday after the driver of one car apparently insulted someone in another car at the station at Foothill Boulevard and Sherman Grove Avenue, police said.

Detective Al Ferrand said six youths got out of the vehicles and began arguing. Two men in a pickup truck joined in the squabble but did not get out of their vehicle, he said. The argument turned into a fistfight among the youths, Ferrand said.

“It had started out over trivial circumstances,” he said. “It looks like somebody just flipped the finger at somebody else. It escalated to the point that one of the participants in the fight armed himself with a handgun.”

The youth with the gun fired into the pickup, hitting both men inside, Ferrand said.

Highfield, a passenger in the truck, jumped out and started running but collapsed and died near the gas station. His wounded companion, Gregory Boots, 26, also of Tujunga, attempted to drive away but crashed into a car on Foothill Boulevard, police said. He later was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was in critical condition.

After the shooting, the youths in the two cars sped away. Ferrand said that none had been identified, and police were looking for witnesses.

Ferrand said it was unclear whether the people from the three vehicles knew each other. He said Boots’ injuries had prevented detectives from talking to him.