1 Killed, 1 Hurt in Police Raid on Apartment : LAPD: Officers in Hawthorne were seeking suspect in last month’s ambush of anti-gang detail. The dead man’s identity is not immediately released.

One man was killed and another was wounded in a shootout Friday night with Los Angeles police who were searching in Hawthorne for a suspect wanted in one of last month’s ambush attacks on LAPD officers.

The shooting occurred shortly after 6 p.m. near Broadway and Prairie Avenue, west of Hawthorne Municipal Airport, police said.

Details remained sketchy, and the identity of the dead man was not immediately disclosed. LAPD officers had gone to an apartment complex near the intersection in search of 20-year-old Terrance Thomas, who has been charged with attempted murder and assault with a firearm on a police officer for his alleged involvement in the Sept. 20 shooting of Officer Ray Mendoza.

Mendoza, who is recovering from gunshot wounds, and his partner in an anti-gang unit were transporting a 17-year-old prisoner when they were attacked near 53rd Street and Broadway.

One suspect was shot during the attack and another was arrested shortly afterward, but Thomas had remained at large.

LAPD officers converged on the Hawthorne apartment building after receiving information regarding about Thomas from an anti-gang officer with the Police Department in Denver, which Thomas had apparently visited several times recently.

“The suspects observed the officers, and a gun battle ensued,” Los Angeles Police Officer Don Cox said.

Lt. William Hall, who investigates officer-involved shootings, said the suspect fired at officers, who shot back.

Neighbors said that one of the men apparently jumped out a window of the apartment before the shootout began.

“I just heard a lot of shots . . . about a hundred of them,” said Deborah Graham, who lives directly across the street from the apartment building and ducked for cover when the gun battle broke out. “It was real scary.”

One suspect died at the scene, and his body remained in the middle of Prairie Avenue late Friday night. A second was hospitalized in critical condition.

SWAT team members fired tear gas into the apartment building as they continued searching the area for additional suspects.

In the September ambush, Mendoza and his partner had arrested a drug suspect and were taking him to the Newton Division station when their car was fired upon.

The attack on Mendoza was one of several to occur that week. The shootings prompted Police Chief Willie L. Williams to issue an order that patrol officers ride two per car.

Sgt. Jim Martinez of the Denver Police Department said: “Our squad developed the information up here after beating the bushes about Thomas’ whereabouts in L.A. and (we) gave it to the LAPD.”