HAWTHORNE POLICE DEPARTMENT
PRESS RELEASE
September 14 2013
On October 12, 2013, at approximately 8:00 pm, Hawthorne Police Department officers were dispatched to the intersection of Rosecrans Avenue and Cordary Avenue, reference a traffic collision. Upon arrival, officers learned that a 70 year old female pedestrian was crossing Rosecrans Avenue from the south sidewalk to the north sidewalk at Cordary Avenue when she was struck by a vehicle that was traveling eastbound Rosecrans Avenue. The female pedestrian was not inside of a crosswalk when she was hit. The female pedestrian was pronounced deceased at the scene. The female pedestrian’s name is being withheld at this time pending notification of the next of kin.
The driver of the vehicle that struck the pedestrian continued eastbound Rosecrans Avenue, and then made a U-turn at Doty Avenue returning to the scene. An alert citizen who witnessed the accident saw the driver of the vehicle that struck the pedestrian then exit his vehicle and place a bag in a nearby set of bushes. Officers were directed to the bag where it was recovered and found to contain a loaded firearm and narcotics which were packaged for sales. The driver, later identified as Edwin Otis Thurman, 51 years old, from Hawthorne, and a convicted Felon, was subsequently arrested for the weapon and narcotics found in the bag he discarded. Thurman was also given a series of Field Sobriety Tests during a Driving Under the Influence Investigation to which he failed. Results are still pending on a blood sample taken from Thurman after his arrest. Thurman is being held in the Hawthorne City jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Contact: Lieutenant Scott Swain
Detective Bureau Commander / Public Information Officer
(310) 349-2835