Section 2. News Report. A new victim in L.A.

Los Angeles police yesterday added a new name to the list of victims of what they believe is a new serial killer. Like the first four victims, Joseph Griffin was a homeless man shot on the head while sleeping alone. NPR's Salas Wason reports from Los Angeles.

Early this month, the police department sent notices to every homeless shelter about the transient killer. Staff member Marcotte Tears reads from the Xerox post near the check-in window at the Union Rescue Mission downtown. Four men have been shot in the head in the last three weeks. The men were all transients and sleeping alone at the time of the killings.

Please tell everyone in this chapel and those along the streets to come indoors at night to any of the missions or shelters. When they are full, please tell the men to group together, not to be alone at night, but huddle for safety. The lives of the men may depend upon their following these instructions.

Since that notice was distributed, police have searched their records and added five more victims to the list. Except for the victim added yesterday, they are not transients, but they were all shot while out on the streets in the early morning hours.

Commander William Booth, a spokesman for the police department, won't confirm it, but reportedly all the men were shot with a small caliber gun.

So far Booth says the task force working on the case doesn't have many clues and only a little bit of information about the murderer.

Frankly not nearly enough. We have a brief description, a male black who is tall, slim, 150 to 170 pounds, 25 to 30 years old. With a medium to large Afro haircut.

The first victim was shot on September 4th, the most recent October 7th. The crime took place in several Los Angeles neighborhoods. All five homeless men killed were sleeping outside downtown. Not in the skid road area, but nearby.

Although the city's transients have been urged to sleep in shelters, there are thousands more men than beds are available. And not all the homeless choose to stay in the shelters. Still most of the men at the Union Rescue Mission know about the transient killer and admit to some concern.

Los Angelos police are still looking for another serial murderer. This outside slayer is suspected of killing 17 women, mostly prostitutes during the past three years. I'm Salas Wason in Los Angeles.