SHOOTOUT ENDS IN DEATH LANCASTER MAN KILLED.

PALMDALE - A Lancaster man was shot to death early Saturday in a parking-lot gunbattle on East Palmdale Boulevard, sheriff's officials said.

Hurricane Lee, 26, and a companion had exchanged stares with two other men inside the Que Ricos restaurant before the shooting, a sheriff's spokeswoman said.

``They were just staring at one another. There were no words exchanged,'' Deputy Sonia Parra said.

Homicide detectives are continuing to investigate the circumstances of the approximately 2 a.m. shooting, Parra said.

According to homicide detectives, Lee and his companion had exchanged intense stares with two men in the restaurant, which is in the 400 block of East Palmdale Boulevard, Parra said.

When Lee and his companion walked outside the restaurant, a gunbattle broke out between them and the other two men, Parra said.

Lee was hit by a bullet and died in the parking lot, officials said.

The two suspects were last seen heading west on foot from the restaurant. They were described as African-American men in their mid-20s and wearing dark clothing.

Anyone with information on the shooting or suspects was asked to call the Los Angeles County Sheriff's homicide bureau at [phone].

This was Palmdale's fourth slaying this year.

In January, Lyman Guillroy, 36, of Palmdale was shot to death in his minivan, and Carol Stacy Evjen, 49, was found beaten to death near the Barrel Springs jogging trail. In April, Carlos Antonio Madera, 27, of Llano was stabbed outside of a Palmdale Boulevard bar.

Suspects in Evjen's and Madera's deaths have been arrested.

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Photo:

Investigators check the crime scene of a fatal shooting hours earlier Saturday outside of Que Ricos, a Palmdale restaurant.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer