Transient Shoots Guard at Residential Hotel

A transient shot and wounded a security guard Thursday at a residential hotel on Skid Row, police said.

The guard, Miguel Martinez, 19, was in the lobby when the gunman fired four shots from the doorway of the Weingart Center hotel about 10 a.m., authorities said.

The suspect, whom police said may have been a former resident of the 600-bed nonprofit hotel, fled and was being sought.

Martinez was hit several times in the left shoulder and right thigh, Lt. Dee Moulin said. He was in stable condition at White Memorial Medical Center, a Weingart Center spokesman said. Martinez was employed by Pinkerton Inc. and had worked at the hotel at 515 E. 6th St. for 11 months, Elizabeth Bailey, the Weingart Center spokeswoman, said.

Founded in 1984, the center is a private, nonprofit organization that provides transitional housing, medical care and substance abuse treatment to the city’s poor and homeless.