City officials sued a Watts resident whose home was the scene of shootings and drug sales over the last 14 years, City Attorney Mike Feuer said last week. The single-family house sits in a cul-de-sac at 2127 East 110th St., not far from a nursing home and two schools — Grape Street Elementary and San Miguel Catholic School, authorities said. The lawsuit targets the property’s owner, Willie Mae Hawthorn.
Feuer alleges that the house, which is marked by gang graffiti, is a “stronghold” for the Ten Line Gangster Crips, and is linked to a dozen shootings over the past 14 years, the confiscation of 10 guns, four arrests, drug sales, robberies and assaults. Feuer is seeking an injunction to prevent the gang’s known members from going onto the property, and he wants the owner to install better lighting and security at the site. Feuer said the property should be shutdown if the terms of the requested injunction are not met.
“For far too long, residents of this Watts neighborhood have lived a nightmare because of the violence emanating from this house,” Feuer said. “My office is committed to ridding our communities of gang strongholds like this.”
Feuer said he has filed six other nuisance abatement lawsuits against properties in Hollywood, South Los Angeles, Venice and Del Rey this year.
