Carjacking Suspect to Face Charge of Murder : Crime: A reward that could reach $30,000 is offered in a similar but apparently unrelated incident.

NORTH HOLLYWOOD — In the aftermath of two apparently unrelated North Hollywood carjackings Wednesday, murder and auto-theft charges will be filed today against a suspect in one case, and a reward that may reach $30,000 has been offered in the other.

Leshawn Cummings, 29, is expected to be charged with murder in the death of William Edward Fliehmann, 41, of Whittier, Lt. Ron LaRue of the Los Angeles Police Department said Thursday. Fliehmann, a highway worker assigned to setting up traffic cones, was found dead at the entrance to the Hollywood Freeway at Victory Boulevard about 3 a.m. Wednesday and his truck was missing.

In the second fatal carjacking incident, which occurred about two miles away, Thomas MacDowell, 32, was shot to death as he tried to park his 1987 BMW outside his girlfriend’s apartment at Laurel Canyon Boulevard near Hesby Street.

MacDowell’s friends announced Thursday that they will offer a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of his killer. City Councilman Joel Wachs will ask the council to increase the amount by $25,000 today, the victim’s friends and co-workers said Thursday.

MacDowell’s employer, the L.A. Cabaret Comedy Club in Encino, announced plans to hold a benefit for his family at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. MacDowell, an aspiring comedian and actor, worked there as a bartender. Proceeds from the event will go to his family and fiancee, said Cabaret employee Bruce Cohen.

In the Fliehmann slaying, Cummings was arrested about 5 p.m. Wednesday at a bus bench at Santa Monica Boulevard and Virgil Avenue in Los Angeles, several blocks from where Fliehmann’s truck had been recovered two hours earlier, police said.

Fliehmann was an employee of Starlight Safety Supply Co., a construction firm based in La Mirada that works under contract for Caltrans. Detectives were unsure if Fliehmann was in the truck when he was approached by the robber or whether he had jumped onto the vehicle when he realized somebody was trying to take it.

“It’s not clear if this was a true carjacking” because detectives are unsure how the robber gained control of the truck, said Lt. LaRue.

There were no witnesses to the incident, which occurred as Fliehmann was preparing to close a lane of Victory Boulevard leading to the Hollywood Freeway entrance.

The truck was driven about 300 feet up the entrance ramp toward the freeway, LaRue said. Fliehmann apparently fell off the truck and died of head injuries suffered in the fall.

“He may have jumped onto the truck,” LaRue said. “As it turned onto the on-ramp, he may have fallen off the truck and hit his head on the curb.” Detectives said it was also possible that Fliehmann was shoved out of the moving vehicle by his assailant.

Fliehmann died of “severe blunt-force trauma” to his head, said Scott Carrier, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

The stolen truck was recovered about 3 p.m. from a parking lot in the 800 block of Virgil Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, LaRue said.

Police were tipped off by a man who recognized the truck from a photograph he saw on a television news report. The tipster told detectives he saw a heavyset man leave it there and walk away.