Girl Hit in Car-to-Car Shooting Dies; SWAT Team Seizes Suspect

REDONDO BEACH — Hawthorne SWAT team members shot tear gas into a home Friday and forced out a man suspected of fatally wounding a 17-year-old girl Wednesday in a car-to-car shooting in the Lennox area, police said.

The girl, who had been placed on life support, died Friday.

Steven Alvarez, 21, surrendered after police cornered him and pumped tear gas into one room of a house at Carnegie Lane and Ford Avenue, said Police Lt. James McInerny. The shooting happened in the 12900 block of Inglewood Avenue, police said.

Alvarez had been aiming at a rival gang member who was driving the car, not the 17-year-old passenger, McInerny said.

Police surrounded Alvarez’s girlfriend’s house in the 11100 block of Truro Avenue in the Lennox area for three hours Wednesday, but Alvarez had already escaped.

Hawthorne police, meanwhile, had put the Redondo Beach house and other locations under surveillance. They saw Alvarez at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, going into the home of a casual acquaintance. The girl in the home with Alvarez was able to escape, with the help of police, about 10 p.m.

Police said they were unable to contact Alvarez by phone or bullhorn to persuade him to surrender. They used the tear gas and arrested him about 5 a.m.