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L.A. Now

Suspect sought in polling place ‘love triangle’ shooting

By Kate Mather
 and Ruben Vives
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Investigators continued their search Wednesday for a man suspected of wounding a poll worker in an election day shooting outside a Watts elementary school, police said.

Authorities told The Times on Tuesday night they had identified a suspect and were confident he would be arrested. They described the shooting outside 92nd Street Elementary School as a ‘love triangle’ turned violent.

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The shooting followed an argument Tuesday morning outside the school’s auditorium, where the polling place was located, police said. The shooter fled the scene and the wounded 35-year-old poll worker ran inside.

PHOTOS: Los Angeles voters go to the polls

The victim was taken to an area hospital with injuries described as a non-life-threatening, police said.

The school was briefly locked down and the polling place closed for about 30 minutes as police investigated the shooting.

The polling place was reopened after LAPD officers deemed the site to be secure, said Sunny Cho of the L.A. city clerk’s office. A mobile polling place was deployed and parked next to the school’s auditorium. Inside the auditorium, a man wearing a white suit, mask and blue gloves cleaned the blood stains on the floor. Similar stains could be spotted outside, near the stairs of the auditorium.

A woman was taken into custody and questioned by detectives, but it was unclear what her connection, if any, was to the incident, Los Angeles police said.

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— Andrew Blankstein, Kate Mather and Ruben Vives

Photo: Police investigate the scene after a poll worker was shot and wounded Tuesday during a domestic dispute outside of the school auditorium being used as a polling place at 92nd Street Elementary in Watts. Credit: Christina House / For The Times

L.A. Now
Kate Mather

Kate Mather covered crime, policing and breaking news across Southern California before leaving The Times in 2018 to attend law school. A native of Lawrence, Kan., she studied journalism at USC before first joining The Times in 2011. Mather was part of the team of reporters that received a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, as well as the team that was a Pulitzer finalist for its reporting on a deadly 2014 rampage in Isla Vista, Calif.

Ruben Vives

Ruben Vives is a general assignment reporter for the Los Angeles Times. A native of Guatemala, he got his start in journalism by writing for The Times’ Homicide Report in 2007. He helped uncover the financial corruption in the city of Bell that led to criminal charges against eight city officials. The 2010 investigative series won the Pulitzer Prize for public service and other prestigious awards.

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