Gunfire at a small shopping plaza in Hawthorne, California, wounded four people early Thursday, September 24, 2026, and the shooter or shooters had already fled before the first patrol cars arrived, according to Hawthorne police.
A Hawthorne Police Department spokesperson said the report came in around 2:13 a.m. in the 14100 block of Crenshaw Boulevard. Officers were dispatched after a caller reported gunshots and screaming in the area.
At least three of the four wounded were struck by bullets. All four victims had non-life-threatening injuries, according to police, who described them only as three men and a woman.
Victims Found Across the Plaza
The victims were scattered rather than contained. Officers found three wounded adults in separate parking lots and one near a bus stop bench. At least one victim appeared conscious as first responders lifted the person onto a stretcher. Footage recorded at the strip mall showed firefighters and paramedics crouched over an injured man.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department took three victims — two men and a woman, all treated first at the scene — to local hospitals. The fourth victim, a man, reached a hospital on his own and was identified there afterward, police said.
Officers from three police departments responded in a large, multi-agency emergency response. Officers from the Gardena and Hermosa Beach police departments responded alongside county firefighters and paramedics. Police confirmed no officer fired a weapon during the incident.
Witnesses Describe an Argument
Witnesses said a group of people had gathered near the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Rosecrans Avenue and fell into an argument shortly before the shooting started. Police have not confirmed those witness descriptions of an argument beforehand.
A neighborhood resident posted video on the Citizen app capturing the sound of the attack. Screams are audible, along with at least three distinct bursts of gunfire, and at least 10 shots are countable across roughly a minute of footage.
Investigators found a number of spent shell casings strewn across the roadway. Officers searched a car sitting in the parking lot, then had it towed for evidence.
No Arrests Announced
Police announced no arrests, and nobody was in custody as of Thursday morning. The department has not said how many people may have been involved, and no descriptions of anyone being sought have been released.
Investigators have offered no account of who fired the shots or why. As of Thursday morning they had not publicly confirmed what set off the violence, and the circumstances remained under investigation.
Crenshaw Boulevard between Rosecrans Avenue and El Segundo Boulevard shut down Thursday morning during the Hawthorne Police Department investigation, cutting off a busy north-south artery. Several businesses nearby would remain closed for as long as officers stayed on scene.
A South Bay Commercial Corridor
The shooting happened in a commercial pocket of Los Angeles County’s South Bay region, lined with storefronts and parking lots. Hawthorne is a city of roughly 6 square miles, wedged between Inglewood and the beach cities, along one of the South Bay’s main commercial corridors.
The intersection where the shooting happened serves as a transit stop as well as a shopping destination, a role underscored by the bus bench where one of the wounded was found. At that hour the plaza’s businesses would have been closed, leaving the parking lots and the sidewalk outside them as the scene of the gunfire.
The investigation was continuing Thursday morning, the search for those responsible remained open, and the block of Crenshaw Boulevard stayed closed to traffic.
