Violence continued to plague South L.A. this week, with the latest incident occurring early Friday when three people were shot and one was killed in the Green Meadows neighborhood, LAPD officials said.

Officer Matthew Ludwig said that just after 3 a.m. a vehicle carrying four people pulled up alongside another vehicle in the 9300 block of South Central Avenue and opened fire, hitting two men and one woman who were inside the vehicle.

The shooters had escaped by the time police and paramedics arrived, he said, and all three victims were rushed to a hospital, where one of the men died. The condition of the two other victims was not immediately known.

Police said they are investigating whether the shooting is gang-related.


The attack follows the city’s deadliest August in years.

On Aug. 26, two people who were talking on the front porch of a triplex in the Broadway-Manchester area were killed when a person walked up and opened fire. Later that night, three people were shot in Vermont Vista, leaving a 57-year-old man dead. In the next three days, four more people were shot to death.

Thirty-nine people were killed in the city last month, making it the deadliest August since 2007, when 41 people were slain.

The LAPD is deploying more officers from the department’s elite Metropolitan Division to especially violent neighborhoods in South L.A., a spokesman said, and they will be joined by additional gang officers. Having more officers on the streets can help reduce the chances of retaliatory attacks, Capt. Jeff Bert said.


To help police respond to violent hot spots faster, the LAPD has set up a command post in its South Bureau that analyzes crime data in real time throughout the area, he said. And the LAPD is increasing community outreach with the help of gang intervention workers, local clergy and other residents to combat gang violence, which is up by more than 15% this year, police say.

In the last 12 months, there have been 15 homicides within a mile of Friday morning’s shooting, according to the Times’ Homicide Report.

Staff writer Nicole Santa Cruz contributed to this report.

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