Abduction considered
in man’s killing
Los Angeles police are looking into the possibility that a University of Southern California student from Hawaii may have been abducted before being fatally shot early Saturday.
Detective Fred Faustino, officer in charge of the L.A. Police Department's homicide unit, said Maxwell Hazlett's body was found about half a mile east of where he should have been -- had he been heading to his apartment.
At 1:30 a.m. Saturday, Hazlett was let out of a friend's car 12 blocks south of where he lived on Figueroa Street. Hazlett enjoyed walking home and usually kept to Figueroa, which is a main street, Faustino said.
But Hazlett's body was found about 5:30 a.m. off Figueroa, at the intersection of 2nd and Emerald streets. The 21-year-old had multiple gunshot wounds to the upper torso.
"Either he was confronted en route home," or he strayed from his usual path, Faustino said, adding that police are looking for witnesses who can confirm that "there was a confrontation or abduction" in the case.
Hazlett's body showed no signs of a struggle, he said.
So far, no witnesses have come forward and there are no suspects. Police also have not established a motive.
"We're looking at the clues ... as they come," Faustino said. "I have detectives running with this."
Hazlett, a graduate of Punahou School and a junior at USC majoring in East Asian languages and cultures, had moved to the off-campus Promenade Towers from student housing four months before his death.
USC student Jon Nutter, a friend of Hazlett's since eighth grade, said he also used to live at Promenade. He considers the area surrounding the apartments fairly safe, and said Figueroa Street is almost always busy.
"You really wouldn't think of it being a very bad neighborhood," he said. "There's traffic. ... It's pretty crowded."
But Nutter characterized the place where Hazlett was found -- off the main thoroughfare -- as a "pretty bad area" that his friend would have likely avoided.
Faustino said Hazlett's is the eighth homicide of the year in downtown Los Angeles. Four of the murders were gang-related, and the others involved domestic violence, he said.
As the investigation into the Hazlett case continues, the young man's friends and professors are working to cope with his death.
"To look at the seat where he always sat ... it's very heartbreaking," said Anne Sokolski, one of Hazlett's professors. "I did say to my students ... to be incredibly cautious, that L.A. is just a big city."