A car-to-car shooting in the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw area left a teenager dead and another person seriously injured on Saturday, police said.
The shooting was reported shortly after 3:30 p.m., when Los Angeles Police Department officers responded to reports of multiple gunshots near a Target store close to the intersection of La Cienega and Obama boulevards, according to the LAPD.
As of Saturday night, the investigation shows that the victims were driving north on La Cienega when another car pulled alongside the passenger side of the victims and opened fire, according to Detective Supervisor Nathan Kouri.
The attack left the 23-year-old driver and 17-year-old front-seat passenger of the victim’s vehicle injured, Kouri said. The teenager later died from their injuries.
The driver is in critical but stable condition, according to the LAPD.
“The four [passengers] in the back were not injured by the gunfire. Two of those four included two 4-year-olds that were seated in the backseat, and luckily, they weren’t harmed,” Kouri said.
The shooter or shooters’ car is a large, dark SUV that pulled a U-turn on La Cienega and began heading south, Kouri added, though the motive behind the shooting remains unknown, as does the number of people who were in the SUV.
“We’re not aware of any type of disputes, verbal disputes or physical disputes, altercations beforehand, so at this time, the motive is unknown … It’s unknown why it happened, which I think, that’s the alarming part, that there’s no indication at all that there was any type of provoking act that caused this to occur,” he said.
There is also “no evidence” that the attack is gang-related, Kouri said.
Anyone with information is asked to call LAPD South Bureau Homicide at 323-786-5100.
To submit information anonymously, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
