SOUTH LOS ANGELES () — A 20-year-old mother was struck and killed by a stray bullet while she was sleeping in her South Los Angeles home, according to her family and authorities.
The shooting occurred at about 3:40 a.m. Sunday in the 400 block of West 103rd Street, just west of the 110 Freeway, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department said.
The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, the LAPD said. Her loved ones later identified her as Maria Luisa Barrios.
No one else was struck by gunfire or injured, police said, adding that the shooter was on the street outside the home at the time of the incident.
The shooter fled the scene and remained at large. A description of the suspect was not available.
Investigators do not believe the victim was that intended target of the shooting, the LAPD said. Her cause of death was listed as a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office.
“This sudden and heartbreaking event has left her family devastated and struggling to cope with the loss,” a statement on a GoFundMe page said. Barrios “was a loving mother, and her absence is felt deeply by everyone who knew her.”
According to the statement, funds raised by the campaign “will go directly toward funeral expenses, send her back to her family in Guatemala and to support her 1-year-old daughter, who now faces an uncertain future without her mother.”
After the shooting, a witness saw a male wearing a red shirt fleeing from the scene, but whether that person was the shooter or the intended victim was unknown, the LAPD said Tuesday.
“With all of her family living in Guatemala, there is little local support available, and we are doing everything we can to provide for her daughter’s needs during this difficult time,” the GoFundMe page said.
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