Man fatally shot on Metro train in South L.A., police say
A 39-year-old man was fatally shot on a Metro train in the Baldwin Hills area Friday evening, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Police were called to the 5600 block of Jefferson Boulevard — near the La Cienega/Jefferson station of the E Line — around 7:40 p.m., said Officer Drake Madison, a spokesman for the department.
The shooting followed an altercation between the victim and four males that “culminated on the train,” he said. One of the males produced a firearm and fired at the victim, he said.
The males were described as between the ages of 15 and 20 and were seen fleeing the area on foot or possibly on skateboards, Madison said.
Paramedics from the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the shooting, but the victim was declared dead at the scene, Madison said.
It was not immediately clear whether the incident was gang-related, he said.
Amid a spike in violence on trains and buses, Mayor Karen Bass calls in more police patrols. The fatal stabbing of a 66-year-old subway rider put the transit agency on edge last month, as pressure grew to respond.
As of 11 p.m., service on the E Line between the Expo/La Brea and La Cienega/Jefferson stations remained disrupted and was replaced with shuttle buses due to police activity, according to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
The shooting is the latest in a recent string of violent incidents on the L.A. Metro system.
In May, a passenger was fatally shot on a bus in the City of Commerce. That same month, a woman’s arm was slashed in an elevator at the Vermont/Athens station, and two people were stabbed during a fight that started aboard a bus in Glendale.
In April, a 66-year-old woman was fatally stabbed on the B Line near the Universal City station.
The spate of violent attacks prompted Mayor Karen Bass in May to order a “surge” of law enforcement on the bus and rail system, saying that the increase in violent crime is “absolutely unacceptable.”
Times staff writer Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.
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