Transient in Abandoned House Killed by Officers

Hawthorne police shot and killed a transient after he emerged from an abandoned house and attacked two officers with pruning shears, authorities said.

The man, whose identity was not released, was believed to be in his early 30s, said Deputy Larry Mead of the Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s deputies were called by Hawthorne police to investigate the shooting.

The officers were checking two abandoned houses in the 3700 block of West 119th Street in the right of way of the unfinished Century Freeway, Mead said. The houses, surrounded by an 8-foot-high chain-link fence, were reported to be illegally occupied. Mead said the man lunged at the officers from the dark house about 4:30 p.m. and was shot several times in the upper body.

Hawthorne officers routinely patrol the area around the abandoned houses because of residents’ complaints that transients have used them as a base to prowl the nearby neighborhoods, authorities said.