Woman fatally shot in front of husband after arriving at wrong house for cleaning job
A woman in the US was fatally shot in front of her husband after arriving at the wrong house for a cleaning job.
On Wednesday (5 November), Maria Florinda Ríos Pérez and her husband, Mauricio Velázquez, arrived outside a home in Whitestown, a suburb near Indianapolis, Indiana, ready to perform a cleaning job they'd been hired for.
The couple double-checked the address and neighbourhood to ensure they were in the right place, arriving at the house shortly before 7 am.
Pérez and her husband then approached the home they believed they'd been hired to clean and attempted to open the door. When Velázquez struggled to open the door, Pérez took the keys from him and went to let them inside.
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It was at this moment that a single shot was fired, and the 32-year-old fell to the ground bleeding.
Emergency services would pronounce Pérez, a mother of four who'd moved to the US from Guatemala, dead at the scene.
"She didn't even put the key in when I heard the shot happen," Velázquez explained in an interview with local outlet IndyStar.
"I saw my wife had stepped back twice, and then the keys dropped. Then she dropped, and I went to catch her. I was trying to console her and tell her everything was going to OK, but I was seeing the blood coming out."
Indiana is one of many states in the US which implements the controversial 'Stand Your Ground' law, allowing people to use force, including deadly force, in self-defence against a violent attack.
The case is still under investigation; however, the Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department has stated that they do not believe the couple were attempting to break into the house and had simply gotten the address wrong.
A report in The New York Times backs this up, stating that the house the couple had been hired to clean was actually behind the property they'd approached.
Velázquez had previously insisted to IndyStar that they were in the right place.
Velázquez is now looking to have his wife's body repatriated home to Guatemala; he is also hoping that the shooter will face justice over the incident.
It is understood that no arrests have been made currently, with the police expected to share a further update on the case within the next week.
"The loss of life is always a profound tragedy, and our hearts and prayers go out to all those affected," a statement from the police force reads.
"WMPD is committed to conducting a thorough and impartial investigation. Our detectives are interviewing all individuals involved, and our crime scene investigators are meticulously collecting and analyzing all relevant evidence to understand the full scope of what occurred."
Brenna Cooper