Man, 39, Found Shot to Death; Clues Are Few
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies found a 39-year-old Compton man lying dead from a gunshot wound to his upper body Wednesday morning.
Authorities said deputies responding to a report of a gunshot victim discovered the body of Herbert Hilton in the 1000 block of South Dwight Avenue in Compton about 1 a.m. Hilton was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.
An autopsy was pending late Wednesday, said Scott Carrier, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.
Detectives are investigating the case but have little to go on, said Sgt. Mark Winters of the sheriff’s homicide bureau.
“We really don’t know what he was doing there,” Winters said, “or the circumstances around his death.” Hilton’s relatives said he was an unemployed truck driver. They had no idea why anyone would kill Hilton, said his cousin Eddie Tatum.
“We don’t know if he had any enemies or not,” Tatum said. “He knew everybody, pretty much, in the neighborhood.”
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