Woman, teenager wounded following argument in San Pedro
A woman and her teenage brother were shot in San Pedro early Wednesday morning when an argument escalated into a double shooting.
The incident was reported at around 2:40 a.m., when Los Angeles Police Department officers were dispatched to the 300 block of W. 1st Street. When they arrived, they found two gunshot victims.
According to police, one of the victims, a 20-year-old girl, was involved in some sort of verbal dispute with another person, who has since been described as a teenage girl, while she and a 13-year-old brother were standing outside of the apartments in the area.
The suspect then fled from the area on foot, and has yet to be located by authorities.
"She was young, she didn't know what decision she was making," said Tia Herod, a cousin of the victims who were shot Wednesday. "She was just scared."
A witness described the moments leading up to the shooting to CBS reporters on scene, detailing "arguing, a lot of screaming, a lot of shouting. Talking about, 'come out, do something,' and then you hear a shot and hear screaming afterwards."
As the situation escalated, the suspect opened fire on the two victims, striking both the woman and the teenager. Both were rushed to a nearby hospital, where the woman is said to be in critical condition and the teenager is showing stable vital signs after sustaining a gunshot wound to the leg.
"She's at the hospital having the surgery. But, she's fine. She's blessed," Herod said when talking about her cousin, the 20-year-old woman, who was shot in the chest.
The unnamed witness helped the woman after she was shot, who was saying she couldn't breathe, by holding a jacket over the wound and applying pressure.
Herod said that the siblings actually went to the area to resolve some sort of ongoing argument, since the suspect has supposedly been staying in one of the apartments.
Police did not believe that the shooting was gang-related.
