Hawkins Caught After Gun Battle in Oakland Area

Escaped murderer James Hawkins Jr., hailed by some as a hero for the 1983 shotgun slaying of a Watts gang member, was wounded and recaptured early Friday during a car chase and gunfight with a deputy sheriff on a country road near Oakland, authorities said.

Hawkins, 41, was wearing a bulletproof vest and emptied three pistols at his pursuer before suffering two superficial head wounds and surrendering, according to deputies.

He was booked into Contra Costa County Jail in Martinez after medical treatment.

“It’s nice to have him back,” said Capt. William R. Hinkle, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman. “Now maybe we can finally resolve his case.”

Wife Knew His Whereabouts

Hawkins’ wife, Helena, who had earlier told reporters she was “sure” her husband was living outside the United States, admitted Friday that she knew he had been hiding in Northern California since escaping Nov. 27 from the downtown Los Angeles Criminal Courts Building.

She said he had planned to get a job so he could save enough money to eventually flee the country.

Helena Hawkins disputed law enforcement reports that Hawkins was heavily armed when captured.

“He told me he didn’t have no gun,” she said after repeated telephone conversations with her husband Friday morning. “They shot him only because they thought he might be armed, because he was trying to get away. He’s fine, but he’s got a terrible headache.”

Attempted Murder Charge

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Harvey Giss said he expects that Hawkins will be arraigned early next week in Contra Costa County on charges of attempting to murder a deputy sheriff and may stand trial there before being returned to Los Angeles.

Giss said officers retrieved three empty pistols from Hawkins--a .22-caliber, a .357 Magnum and a .44-caliber.

Authorities are planning ballistic tests to determine whether the .357 Magnum and the .44-caliber are the guns used to kill two reputed Los Angeles County narcotics dealers in June, 1984. Hawkins was awaiting trial in those slayings when he escaped in November.

The weapons used in the two killings were never recovered, Giss said.

In September, Hawkins was sentenced to 28 years in prison for killing Anttwon Thomas, 19, whose death triggered violent confrontations between Thomas’ fellow gang members and the Hawkins family.

Shot Called Accidental

Hawkins argued that he accidentally shot Thomas during a struggle that began after Hawkins tried to stop Thomas and others gang members from accosting a woman and her children near a hamburger stand run by Hawkins’ father on Imperial Avenue.

The embattled family drew praise and support from law enforcement officials as well as politicians and was the subject of a two-hour television documentary after its confrontation with the street gang.

Hawkins and two other inmates escaped from a 14th-floor holding tank in the Criminal Courts Building the day before Thanksgiving.

One of those who broke out with Hawkins was recaptured the same day. The other, murder suspect Jesus Gonzalez, remains at large.

“I thought sure he was out of the country,” Hawkins’ father, James Hawkins Sr., said of his son Friday. “I only talked to him once while he was gone and I begged him, ‘Please give yourself up. You’re innocent; stay and prove it. On the run, they can say anything about you.’ But he said they’d treated him so bad in that jail, that he had to go.

“I’m glad they didn’t kill him.”

Authorities said Hawkins was first spotted shortly after 1 a.m. Friday by Contra Costa Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Campizi. The deputy was patrolling alone along Fish Ranch Road, a few miles northeast of Oakland, in a section of the Berkeley Hills where several homes have recently been burglarized.

Campizi spotted a silver-colored Honda parked on the road’s shoulder and noticed a man sleeping on the front seat, according to Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Capt. Russell Pitkin.

Deputy Awakens Hawkins

Campizi awakened the man, and when asked for identification, Hawkins produced his actual driver’s license. As Campizi returned to his patrol car to run a routine check on the license, Hawkins drove off, Pitkin said.

“This officer had no inkling Hawkins was in the county. He simply stumbled across him during a routine check,” Pitkin said.

Campizi pursued Hawkins north on Fish Ranch Road for “several minutes” until Hawkins lost control and crashed his car. Hawkins then jumped out and began shooting, according to Pitkin.

Two California Highway Patrol officers arrived about a minute later as did Oakland police responding to Campizi’s calls for assistance. They found Campizi and Hawkins exchanging what Pitkin described as “a steady stream of fire.”

Hawkins surrendered after being stunned by a superficial bullet wound, “but certainly not before he tried to kill several . . . officers,” Pitkin said.

David Freed reported from Los Angeles and Ruth Snyder from Contra Costa County.