Man Shot on West Hollywood’s Norton Avenue in Random Midday Attack​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

A man was shot on Norton Avenue in West Hollywood Tuesday in what was described to WEHOonline as a random, unprovoked attack in the middle of the day.

WEHOonline arrived on the scene as deputies were still working the area. At approximately 12:07 p.m., the victim was walking with his wife and infant child on Norton Avenue just west of Fairfax when a suspect approached him. No words were exchanged. The suspect opened fire and fled in a white Nissan Altima. The direction of travel was unknown. The department’s official statement To WEHOonline described an unknown number of rounds fired.

A witness who asked not to be identified, told us the victim was struck and hit in three locations — the bullet passed through the left leg laterally, exiting through the calf, and entering the right leg without exiting. Bullet fragments were also felt in the wound. The wife and child were not shot. The victim was transported to a hospital where he is reported to be in stable condition.

The suspect was described by deputies to WEHOonline as an unknown Black male wearing all black clothing.

A resident who lives across the street told WEHOonline he was inside on a phone call when he heard a loud bang. His first thought was a car backfire.

“Then we just heard screaming,” he said. “Somebody called the ambulance, called the police.”

He went outside. His sister, who had also been inside, said she saw a man in a black hoodie running up the street away from the scene. The resident said he was not certain whether there had been an altercation before the shooting. “I just know that he was standing there across the street and then shot in the leg,” he said.

The shooting rattled neighbors who told WEHOonline they walk Norton Avenue daily. Marjorie, a board member of the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, told WEHOonline her husband had passed the same spot on Norton about five minutes before the shooting. She had turned back to her apartment to grab something she forgot. “He passed right here,” she said. “And then I literally got right here, and I said, oh, I forgot something, and I ran back.”

A neighbor named Kelly, who lives nearby, told WEHOonline she had heard the sirens from her home while working but thought nothing of it. She had been on Norton Avenue herself earlier in the afternoon. “If I would have walked 20 minutes earlier,” she said. “I walk this street all the time. I don’t walk down Santa Monica because I’m like, this is such a nice walk.”

Tuesday’s shooting comes five days after a West Hollywood woman was shot while standing on her balcony on Vista Street. That suspect has not yet been found.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s West Hollywood Station is investigating. Anyone with information is asked to call the station at (310) 855-8850.