A 25-year-old pregnant woman was fatally shot in Artesia as she was en route to her father’s birthday party, and her bereaved family is convinced that this was not an accident.
On December 29, at at 7:30 p.m., a shooting took place at the intersection of Pioneer and Artesia Boulevards.
Marissa Perez was in the front passenger seat of the car as her father drove to pick up a birthday cake; she was due in June.
Sandra Tolentino, Perez’s mother, claimed that a car came up next to the father and daughter and started firing when she talked with Eyewitness News on Monday. According to Perez’s mother, she had multiple gunshot wounds, one of which was to the head.
“She was 25. She was about to be a mother in five more months. She was so happy,” said Tolentino, who told ABC7 the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said investigators do not believe this was a random act.
“She always cared for so many people. Her heart was literally on her sleeve every day.”
At the junction where the shooting occurred, a monument made up of flowers and personal notes is spreading as the hunt for the shooter goes on.
Tolentino and her family, who referred to Perez as “the most loyal, kind, extroverted, and strongest person,” are now in mourning and are attempting to make sense of the tragic event that took place just days before the New Year.
“She should have never been taken from us that way,” said Tolentino. “She still had such a life ahead of her and it kills me that we won’t be able to have that next chapter. Don’t hold grudges and just love, love so hard because you just never know when will be the last time to say goodbye.”
The sheriff’s department has not released a description of the suspect or suspects.
One is urged to call the LASD homicide bureau at 323-890-5500 if they have any information.
