Man Charged With Attempted Murder Of 4 Police Officers In Hawthorne Shootout
HAWTHORNE (CBSLA) — A man who exchanged gunfire with a Hawthorne police officer after fighting with his girlfriend has been charged with trying to kill four officers who were responding to the domestic dispute call.
James Louis Boyd III, 37, of Oceanside, was charged Monday with 10 felony counts – four each of attempted murder and assault on a peace officer with a semiautomatic firearm, and one count each of shooting an occupied motor vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
Boyd was fighting with his girlfriend at a hotel in Hawthorne on the morning of April 7 and reported to be chasing her when he fired shots from a rifle into the air, prosecutors said. When officers responded to the scene, Boyd allegedly shot one of the patrol cars, shattering a window, prompting at least two officers to return fire.
One officer was hit in the leg, and Boyd was also wounded, having been hit in the torso.
The girlfriend was not injured.
If convicted as charged, Boyd faces a possible maximum sentence of 100 years to life in state prison. He is being held on $5 million bail.
Hawthorne, a city of just under 87,000, was rocked almost immediately after the shootout by the murder of a mother outside Hawthorne Police Department's headquarters during a custody exchange.