Photo: Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Authorities today identified a woman who died in a shooting in the south Los Angeles area that left a man wounded, and continued their efforts to find the gunman, believed to have been the woman's ex-boyfriend, according to police and broadcast reports.
Cynthia Hairston, 53, of Los Angeles, died at the scene of the crash, which occurred at Jefferson Boulevard and San Pedro Street late Wednesday morning, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office and the Los Angeles Police Department.
Officers sent to 21st Street and Central Avenue on a “shots fired'' report about 10:50 a.m. Wednesday learned that the crash and fatal shooting occurred a short time later, police said. The man who was wounded was taken to a hospital in stable condition.
The gunman was described as a Black man in his 50s, about 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing about 240 pounds, according to police and reports from the scene. He was driving a 2001 Toyota, license number 7NGA480, police said. No arrests have been reported.
Police said the suspect got out of his car and shot the pair after the crash, then fled.
The suspect was the ex-boyfriend of the woman, and attacked her in the middle of a traffic jam, KTLA5 reported.
According to broadcast reports, the man chased the victims from the site of the “shots fired'' incident at 21st Street and Central Avenue to the site of the crash and fatal shooting at Jefferson Boulevard and San Pedro Street.
Fox11, citing witnesses, reported that the suspect got out of his car following the crash, walked over to the victims' car and opened fire, wounding the man -- whose name was not released -- and Hairston.
“She was just a really good person; I watched five of her babies grow up,'' Hairston's childhood friend, Barbara Taylor, told Fox11.
Family and friends said Hairston had a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend, who is believed to be the shooter, according to the station.
“Yes, there was a restraining order ... she put a restraining order because he kept stalking her,'' family friend Joyce Williams told the station.
LAPD officials have not confirmed if the shooting and car crash was a result of domestic violence. Anyone who has information on the case was urged to call LAPD's Newton Station at 323-846-6547. Tipsters can also call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477.
Copyright 2021, City News Service, Inc.