Compton Man, 64, Slain on Porch in Drive-By Shooting

A retired merchant seaman, enjoying an afternoon on the porch smoking a cigarette, became yet another innocent victim of gang violence when youths drove past his Compton home, shouted a gang slogan and shot him to death, police said.

Benjamin Hill, 64, was one of three people struck by rifle shots shortly after 5 p.m. Monday at his home at 352 W. Poplar St., police reported. Hill was shot once in the head and at least twice in the body.

Two other men--James Holly, 21, and David Ward, 17--were reported in serious condition Tuesday at Martin Luther King Jr. General Hospital. Police said Holly was shot once in the right thigh and Ward, a suspected gang member who was the apparent target of the attack, was shot once in the back.

Four Youths Sought

Late Tuesday, police were searching for four youths who were seen leveling a rifle from a green and white sedan, said Compton Police Lt. Percy Perrodin. Witnesses reported hearing the assailants shout a gang slogan just before opening fire at the three men clustered together at the front of the home.

“When they started shooting, I guess everybody started running,” Perrodin said. Hill “apparently wasn’t able to escape the line of fire,” he said.

Hill, who retired three years ago, was nearly deaf, said his daughter, Lilly Lorraine Miles, who also lives at the home.

Miles, a stockroom worker, said she is also related to Ward, who is her nephew. Miles said she had just arrived home from work when the incident occurred during daylight hours.

“I had just walked in the house, walked in the bedroom and I heard the shots,” she said. “To see your own father die on your porch, that is a shock. They ripped him apart. . . . I don’t know why.”

Gang Activity Suspected

According to police, Ward is believed to be a gang member or an associate of neighborhood gang members. But Miles disputed the police assertions, saying gangs have never been a problem in the 14 years she has lived in the neighborhood.

“None of the boys around here are in gangs,” she said. “That really puzzles me. As long as I’ve been living on this street, I’ve never had any trouble.”

A neighbor, Diane Faulks, said residents of the mixed black and Latino neighborhood were shocked by the shooting.

“As far as I know, there haven’t been any gangs around here,” said Faulks, a longtime resident. “I’ve never had any problem.”

Hill’s death, one of a growing number of gang-related shooting deaths in Los Angeles County this year, was the fourth such killing in Compton since January and the second case of an innocent bystander being slain, Perrodin said. Early last month, he said, a 54-year-old Compton man was killed while sitting in a car with suspected gang members who were targets of a drive-by shooting.

A year ago at this time, Compton police reported 10 gang killings in a city that has been struggling to curtail gang violence, Perrodin said.

Perrodin declined to say which gang might have been responsible for Monday’s shooting, but he said police have good leads and expect to make arrests.