Hernando Queens, 41, a man from Hawthorne, was shot in the early morning hours of October 15, 2025, on the 14100 block of Doty Avenue. Officers and paramedics arrived just after 2:15 a.m.; he was pronounced dead at the scene while a second person was wounded in the same burst of gunfire. The killing marked the city’s second fatal shooting within a few days, heightening anxiety in the neighborhood as detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau joined Hawthorne
police at the cordoned-off residential street.
Investigators quickly detained a suspect near the scene. By the end of the week, prosecutors charged 28-year-old Mauricio Garcia with murder and attempted murder in connection with the Doty Avenue attack; he pleaded not guilty. Reporting on the charging documents described officers finding him in possession of a firearm when they arrived, and early accounts emphasized that this was a shooting between neighbors rather than a random strike. Authorities have not publicly alleged a broader conspiracy or additional assailants, and no other arrests tied to Queens’ death had been announced in the initial court filings and news summaries.
The case unfolded amid a spate of gun violence in Hawthorne that week, with detectives noting the pace of shootings while stressing that the Doty Avenue homicide appeared to be a distinct incident. As of the first reports following the arraignment, investigators continued collecting witness statements and ballistic evidence, while the wounded survivor’s account was expected to shape the narrative of what happened in the moments before the shots rang out.
