Driver Shot on Century Freeway

Police closed the westbound lanes of the Century Freeway in the Hawthorne area for about an hour Thursday after a car-to-car shooting that left a 20-year-old Gardena man slightly wounded, investigators said.

It was at least the 16th freeway shooting in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties in the past six months. At least four people have died in the apparently unrelated shootings.

It was also the second time this week that a major Southland freeway was closed for an extended period, the first being a standoff Tuesday on the San Bernardino Freeway between law enforcement personnel and a suspect in an attempted kidnapping. Both incidents snarled traffic for miles.

The unidentified victim of Thursday’s shooting was listed in stable condition Thursday evening at Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives said they did not know who fired at least five shots from a small, dark blue sedan with tinted windows. They said three of the shots struck the driver’s side door of the man’s car and one blew out the rear window.

Sheriff’s Lt. Rick Meyers said the man told officers he was westbound on the freeway about 1:35 p.m. when he heard a shot and felt something strike the back of his head. Realizing he had been hit, he pulled off at the Crenshaw Boulevard exit, parked and called 911, Meyers said.

An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer who also was westbound on the freeway said he heard the gunfire and followed the victim off the freeway. The CHP said the officer stayed with the man until an ambulance arrived.

The CHP halted traffic in the westbound lanes between Vermont Avenue and Crenshaw to examine the crime scene. Deputies said they found an expended shell casing on the pavement.

The motive for the shooting was unknown, sheriff’s detectives said.

Any public fear that freeway violence is increasing is based on “perception, not reality,” Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said last month.

Officials said there is no evidence that the number of attacks is higher than usual or that there is any connection between them.

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Times staff writers Veronica Torrejon and Eric Malnic contributed to this story.