Fugitive Killer Hawkins Shot in Gunfight, Captured

James Hawkins Jr., the convicted killer who escaped from a Los Angeles courthouse, was shot three times and captured early today when a car chase ended in a 20-minute shoot-out with six lawmen, authorities said.

Hawkins, 40, who was convicted last August of voluntary manslaughter in the 1983 shooting of 19-year-old gang member Anttwon Thomas, was captured about 1:30 a.m. after being wounded in the face, Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Wayne Willett said.

The chase began after a sheriff’s deputy investigated a “suspicious vehicle” parked along a roadway near the Berkeley hills, Willett said.

“The deputy talked to the man and, when he went back to his patrol car to do a radio check, the man took off in his car,” Willett said. After a short chase, Hawkins crashed just outside of Orinda, he said.

“The deputy ordered him out of the car, and Hawkins responded by opening fire,” Willett said. After a 20-minute shoot-out, Hawkins surrendered and was rushed to a local hospital, where his wounds were listed as minor. None of the officers were injured.

Hawkins is being held without bail in the Contra Costa County Jail on the Los Angeles charges and for attempted murder of the police officers, authorities said.

Hawkins and two other county jail inmates escaped from the Criminal Courts building in downtown Los Angeles last November. One inmate was recaptured quickly but Hawkins and the other man disappeared. Hawkins had been awaiting trial on double-murder charges unrelated to the Thomas killing.