A man shot and killed the mother of his 17-month-old child during a custody exchange in front of a California police station and was arrested several hours later, authorities said. The child was not injured.
The mother was approaching the front door of the Hawthorne Police Department on Sunday to pick up the child when the father approached from a parking lot with a shotgun and opened fire, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
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A police officer rushed out and opened fire as the father left the parking lot in a vehicle that was abandoned a few blocks away, according to the sheriff’s homicide bureau.
Brenda Renteria, 28, died at the scene, authorities said.
Officers blocked off streets and arrested Jacob Munn, 30, on suspicion of murder. It was unclear if he has an attorney.
A shotgun was found just outside the front doors of the police station.
Earlier Sunday, a Hawthorne police officer was wounded in a gunbattle in a shopping centre parking lot in an incident that was reported as domestic violence at a hotel.
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A man whose name was not released was later arrested in an underground parking structure and taken to a hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound to his upper body.
The Sheriff’s Department said the wounds suffered by the officer and by the suspect were not life-threatening.
Hawthorne is a Los Angeles suburb of 87,000 people.
The Associated Press
