Watts Homeowner Sued Over Alleged Gang Stronghold

A homeowner in Watts has been sued by the city after her property was allegedly the site of shootings, drug sales and gang activity for over a decade, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer said Thursday.

The lawsuit targets the property's primary owner, Willie Mae Hawthorne, and several others, because the single-family house has been an alleged "gang stronghold" and a "major hub for local street gang activity," specifically the Ten Line Gangster Crips gang, Feuer's office said.

"There are families on this block who must instruct their children that they have to sleep below windowsills to avoid stray bullets," Feuer said.

The home in question is located in the 2100 block of East 110th Street, not far from schools and churches.

"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."

The nuisance abatement lawsuit alleges that the house, which is marked by gang graffiti, is linked to a dozen shootings over the past 14 years, the confiscation of 10 guns, four arrests, drug sales, robberies and assaults.

"It may be that some of these individuals go to other locations, and if that's the case, and we find out that is what is going on, and similar activity happens there, we will go after them there," Feuer said. "But it's the concentration of activity at a location like this that really distinguishes it from many other properties in the city where there may be an individual here, or an individual there."

Hawthorne was aware of the alleged activity and failed to make improvements at the city's request, Feuer's office said.

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.