Victim May Face Paralysis, Abortion
A San Fernando High School student could be paralyzed and may have to abort her 7-week-old fetus because of injuries that she received in a drive-by shooting, Los Angeles police said Thursday.
Alma Perez, 18, was struck in the neck as she and friends sat on a bed, their backs to the window, at a friend’s house, Detective Gordon Boling said. No one else was hit in the Tuesday night shooting in the 14200 block of Mercer Street in Arleta.
Perez, a resident of Pacoima, was taken to Holy Cross Medical Center. Boling said Perez could not move from the shoulders down because of a spinal cord injury, but added that doctors did not know whether the paralysis would be permanent.
Boling said the shooting appears to be gang-related but that Perez, whom he described as an innocent victim, is not a gang member.
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