US: Man fatally shoots woman in front of Hawthorne police department ⁰

A man has shot and killed the mother of his child in front of the Hawthorne police department in Hawthorne, Los Angeles, California, officials say.

The incident happened on Sunday afternoon as the two were meeting for a custody exchange of their 17-month-old child when the man shot and killed the woman.

An officer, who ran outside the station once he heard the gunfire, opened fire, but the suspect escaped the scene.

The suspect’s black pickup truck was left less than a block away. After three hours, he was finally arrested near where his car was found.HThis happened just hours after, in another incident, Hawthorne police officers and a gunman exchanged gunfire, leaving one officer and the suspect both wounded.

The incident began when officers responded to a report of a man chasing a woman in the lobby of a hotel before 9:30 in the morning, according to Hawthorne Police Chief Michael Ishii.

As the officers arrived, the suspect ran across the street and into a shopping center.

The officers then confronted the man and twice exchanged gunfire with him, according to Ishii.

“I just heard the gunshots. It was just nonstop for 30 seconds to a minute, just nonstop gunshots,” said witness Kevin McCullough. “I parked my car and got out and filmed as carefully as possible. It was pretty frightening to say the least.”

One of the officers, a 15-year veteran, was struck in the leg and taken to a hospital. The suspect was arrested and taken into custody.

The gunman was armed with “some sort of assault rifle or a TEC-9-type high-powered or high-capacity weapon,” Ishii said at a press conference.