Retired Deputy Wounded In Redondo Beach Shooting, Gunman At Large

REDONDO BEACH (CBSLA) – A retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy and Vietnam veteran was wounded when a gunman came to his door and then opened fire on him at an apartment in Redondo Beach in the early morning hours Thursday.

The 75-year-old victim, Matt Turner, was home alone at the time of the shooting but managed to call 911. He was conscious as he was rushed by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where he underwent surgery, which was said to have gone well.

The shooting was reported just before 12:30 a.m. in the 500 block of Avenue G. According to Redondo Beach police, a man knocked on the victim's door and asked him for an unknown person. The victim did not open the door, but responded through an adjacent window that he did not know who the suspect was referring to.

The suspect then fired three rounds through the window, two of which struck the victim in his abdomen and wrist, police said. He then ran.

"I woke up when I heard the two pops, I thought it was firecrackers from New Year's," said one neighbor, who did not want to be identified.

"I looked through my blinds and I saw [the suspect] running like super fast, like really, really fast," she added.

"It was like a bang, and then a pause, and then like bang, bang," said another man. "I just heard footsteps like someone was running."

A neighbor told investigators that, following the shooting, she saw a man running eastbound towards Prospect Avenue. Responding officers used a drone to try and locate the suspect, but he remains at large. He was only described as about 5-foot-5, wearing a dark hooded-sweatshirt.

Police said the victim retired from the sheriff's department in 1978. A motive for the shooting remains under investigation. Detectives do not believe the suspect and victim knew each other. A prosecutor with the L.A. County district attorney's office Crimes Against Peace Officers (CAPO) section was also called in.