Shot Breaks Window of Lawndale Mayor’s Car

A shot from a pellet gun early Wednesday shattered the left rear window of a car driven by Lawndale Mayor Sarann Kruse, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Sgt. Steven Fredericks of the Lennox Sheriff’s Station, which patrols Lawndale, said there is no known motive for the shooting. He said investigators do not know whether it was specifically directed at Kruse.

Kruse, who was not injured, said she heard a loud noise but did not realize that a shot had been fired.

“I thought it was a car backfiring,” she said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon. “As I’m driving, I’m hearing this noise like gravel hitting the wheel well. It continued and I drove for about a block before I stopped to see what the noise was. That’s when I saw that the window had been shattered.

The incident took place about 7:15 a.m. as Kruse drove her 1986 Chevrolet Caprice Classic in the 4200 block of 154th Street, a side street she uses to cover the few blocks between her home and a dress shop she owns on Hawthorne Boulevard.

Kruse said that after seeing the shattered window she drove to the shop and telephoned her husband.

She said she then called the Sheriff’s Department--not because she thought someone was shooting at her, but because she wanted a police report to get her insurance company to pay to replace the window.

The Sheriff’s Department said it was the 84th shooting on a Los Angeles County road this year.

“I’m a good person,” said Kruse, who has been on the City Council since 1976 and mayor since 1982.