Woman Shot on Freeway Ramp After Killers Force Car to Stop

A 33-year-old mother was shot in front of her family early Thursday after she told two men she had no jumper cables to start a car they had rolled onto a freeway ramp to block traffic, San Diego police said.

Maria Guadalupe Estrada was driving from a birthday party to her home in the 900 block of 41st Street with her three young children, her mother and her 13-year-old brother, Police Lt. Dan Berglund said.

As Estrada entered the southbound ramp to Interstate 15 from Market Street shortly before 3 a.m., a taxicab was partly blocking the on-ramp and two men flagged her down. Berglund said the men told her they needed gas money and/or jumper cables. When she didn’t give them what they wanted, one of the men began breaking out the rear window of her car.

When Estrada tried to drive away, the second man shot her in the face at close range, Berglund said. Estrada was able to drive a half-mile to the Imperial Avenue exit off Interstate 15. She collapsed on Tompkins Street near Francis Street where she died, a coroner’s deputy said.

Estrada’s 9-year-old son, Jesus, said the two men came up to the car and asked his mother, “ ‘Do you have cables to put in our car?’ Mom said no. Then they took out the gun and shot her.” Jesus said his mother was bleeding but managed to drive the family away from danger. The boy described the two assailants only as very dirty and wearing Levis.

The cab had temporarily been abandoned on the shoulder of the road by its driver after it stalled, Berglund said. The cab driver had gone to his home nearby to call for assistance and did not return until after police arrived at the scene.

While the cab driver was gone, the two men broke into the cab and rolled it onto the on-ramp so that it blocked traffic, Berglund said.

Police blocked off until about noon the freeway on-ramp from Market Street to I-15, the off-ramp to Imperial Avenue and the on-ramp from Imperial to southbound I-15, Berglund said.