A California woman of eight was fatally shot while confronting a group of persons she believed were selling marijuana vape pens to her child, according to local news.
Maria Guadalupe Ramos Velasco, 33, of Los Angeles, was shot earlier this month near the intersection of Hilton Street and Bancroft Avenue in Oakland at around 2:20 p.m. on August 7.
Earlier that day, Ramos and her mother, Blanca Velasco, allegedly noticed a Toyota parked near Velasco’s house and assumed the occupants were selling marijuana vape pens to one of Ramos’ children. Velasco told KTVU that the couple intended to approach the vehicle and tell them to “stop coming” to the house.
Ramos and Velasco were in Velasco’s Toyota RAV4, and Ramos exited the car to confront the suspects. Then, she allegedly sprayed pepper spray into the back of the suspect vehicle, according to KTVU, which cited freshly obtained video evidence of the event, a witness, and an investigation source.
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At that point, a 16-year-old suspect, who has not been identified owing to his age, reportedly shot and killed Ramos. When the juvenile suspect pointed the weapon at Velasco, she drove away but returned to discover her daughter lying on the ground.
Prosecutors accused alleged driver Isaiah Gomez, 19, of being an accessory to a crime.
“I started caressing her chest and telling her to breathe, Lupita! We still need you. You have eight kids. “She tried,” Velasco told the newspaper.
Ramos had previously struggled with her drug addiction, according to her mother. She leaves behind seven daughters aged one to sixteen, as well as a seven-year-old son.
“We have to change the way we live over here,” Ramos’ aunt, Maria Del Carmen Beltran, told KTVU. “We don’t have to be killer people, you know?”
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“She brought immense joy, love, and kindness into the lives of everyone who knew her,” Beltran said in the description of a GoFundMe page for Ramos. “As we navigate this profound loss, we are coming together to honor Guadalupe’s memory and provide her with the farewell she truly deserves.”
The page set up for the “María Guadalupe Ramos Velasco family” states that dollars donated “will go directly towards help [for] her kids, and to help ease the financial burden on the Ramos family.”