A five-year-old girl who was riding in a car with her parents on the way to a family birthday dinner was fatally shot on I-880 in Fremont Saturday night.

The shooting happened around 6:40 p.m. near the Dixon Landing exit of southbound I-880. According to an account on GoFundMe, the family was on their way to Outback Steakhouse in Fremont.

The victim's name was Eliyanah Crisostomo, and family friends tell KTVU that the girl died within 30 seconds after being struck by a bullet.

Santa Cruz police said they had spotted the suspect vehicle in the shooting and pursued it on Highway 17. The car's driver allegedly refused to stop for a number of miles, and officers say they observed the occupants of the vehicle toss a gun out of a window before they ultimately pulled over and surrendered to police.

That appeared to be a dead lead, however — by Monday, CHP investigators said that no arrests had been made, and they were seeking the public's help in identifying suspects.*

"Eliyanah was a fun-loving little girl who loved life, had a giving heart, close with her three siblings, especially her brother who were 11 months apart," friends say on the GoFundMe page. "Both were so excited for Easter before the family was torn to pieces by this tragic event."

As KTVU notes, "The Bay Area has seen a rise in freeway shootings over the last two years.  There were 154 in 2022, nearly double the number that Los Angeles saw, according to a KTVU analysis."

One freewway shooting in November 2021 took the life of a two-year-old boy, Jasper Wu, in Oakland. That case has sparked recent controversy as District Attorney Pamela Price has said she is "reviewing" charges against the suspects, which were filed under her predecessor last year.

Photo via GoFundMe

*This post has been updated to show that no arrests in the case have been made.