Man Charged With Killing Child's Mother In Hawthorne

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA – A man who is accused of fatally shooting the mother of his child during a custody exchange outside the Hawthorne police station was charged Tuesday with capital murder.

Jacob Ryan Munn, 30, of Hawthorne was set to be arraigned this afternoon at the Airport Branch Courthouse in Los Angeles on the murder charge stemming from Sunday's shooting death of Brenda Renteria, 28, of Simi Valley.

The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegation of murder while lying in wait, along with an allegation that he used a shotgun, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty against Munn, who is also charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. He has a 2008 conviction for robbery, according to the criminal complaint.

Renteria was shot about 6 p.m. Sunday during the exchange outside the Hawthorne police station at 12501 S. Hawthorne Blvd.

"One of our officers was inside and rushed outside when he heard the gunfire," Lt. Gary Tomatani told City News Service. "Witnesses told the officer that the man who shot the woman was fleeing the scene. That's when an officer-involved-shooting took place."

The suspect was not hit by the gunfire, authorities said.

Police tracked his car to the area of 133rd Street and Hawthorne Boulevard outside a Denny's restaurant where it was abandoned, Tomatani said. Officers – assisted by SWAT and K-9 teams and colleagues from the Torrance, Manhattan Beach and Santa Monica police departments – then set up a perimeter and brought in police dogs to look for the suspect, who was arrested nearly three hours later in the 4400 block of 134th Street.

The 17-month-old child involved in the custody exchange was safe and in police hands after the shooting, police said.

City News Service contributed to this post