A double shooting near 103rd Street and Grandee Avenue in Watts on Tuesday afternoon left a 40-year-old man wounded in the chest and a 30-year-old man struck twice by gunfire, sending both to the hospital from a corner that sits steps from a busy Metro rail platform.
The shooting happened at approximately 12:56 p.m., according to KTLA, which reported that Los Angeles City Fire officials transported both victims to the hospital. As of the station's report, their conditions had not been released. Reporting from MyNewsLA.com added that the 40-year-old remained conscious and breathing after being shot in the chest, while the 30-year-old had been hit twice.
Police said a suspect was seen fleeing the area in a burgundy Toyota Camry, per the earlier KTLA account, though the vehicle's description has since been sharpened. MyNewsLA.com's report described the suspects as two men in their 20s who fled the Watts intersection in a faded burgundy Camry. Investigators had not confirmed what led up to the shooting, had not announced any arrests, and had not recovered a weapon at the scene, KTLA reported.
Metro Station and Park Sit Steps From the Gunfire
The corner where the shooting unfolded is not an obscure side street. It is the site of the Metro A Line's 103rd Street/Watts Towers light rail station, a high-foot-traffic transit hub that sits adjacent to Ted Watkins Memorial Park, according to background compiled from Wikipedia and local reporting. That combination of transit riders, parkgoers and residents makes the intersection one of the more heavily trafficked public spaces in the neighborhood at any given hour.
LAPD officers staged along Century Boulevard as the investigation continued Tuesday, diverting traffic while detectives worked the scene, KTLA reported. The area falls under the jurisdiction of the LAPD Southeast Community Police Station, which deploys more than 350 sworn and civilian personnel across 10.2 square miles to serve roughly 150,000 residents in Watts and the surrounding South L.A. neighborhoods.
A Corridor With a Recent History of Gun Violence
Tuesday's shooting is not the first act of gun violence along the 103rd Street corridor this year. In July, a 20-year-old mother was killed when a bullet fired through her bedroom window on the 400 block of West 103rd Street, MyNewsLA.com reported at the time, a case that underscored ongoing community concern about gunfire in the area. Hoodline also previously reported a fatal officer shooting along the same street last November.
The corridor has also drawn municipal attention for traffic safety, separate from the violence: East 103rd Street from Fifth Boulevard to Grandee Avenue was selected as one of 125 Los Angeles locations for new automated speed enforcement cameras under a state pilot program, the Los Angeles Times reported in March.
Citywide Homicides Are Down, But Local Shootings Persist
The Watts shooting comes even as Los Angeles has posted historic drops in violent crime. The LAPD's 2025 Annual Crime Data Report, released in February, showed citywide homicides fell 19 percent last year to 230 cases, the lowest annual total in the city since 1966, according to the City of Los Angeles. Gang-related homicides citywide dropped 4 percent in 2025, while neighborhoods served by Gang Reduction and Youth Development intervention programs saw homicides fall 27 percent for a second consecutive year, per statistics compiled by Safe and Sound Security.
Watts has its own layer of community-based safety infrastructure aimed at preventing exactly the kind of retaliatory violence that can follow a shooting like Tuesday's. The Watts Gang Task Force, established in 2005, and the LAPD's Community Safety Partnership Bureau, launched in 2011, both rely on relationship-based policing and community mediation to try to head off further violence, according to background from the task force and the bureau.
What Charges Could Look Like If Suspects Are Identified
No arrests had been announced as of Tuesday, and police had not released a description of the suspects beyond the vehicle they were seen fleeing in. If the men are eventually identified and charged, assault with a firearm under California Penal Code Section 245(a)(2) is a felony carrying two, three or four years in state prison, according to FindLaw, with additional enhancements possible if the shooting caused great bodily injury or is found to be gang-motivated.
Investigators have not said what led to the shooting, and key questions remain open, including the motive, the current medical conditions of both victims, and whether the two men seen fleeing in the faded burgundy Camry have been identified. Anyone with information has not yet been directed to a specific tip line in available reporting.
