Shattered Family : Relatives Are Devastated by Death of Woman Who Was Gunned Down at Birthday Celebration

The heart of a 21-year-old Paramount woman declared brain-dead stopped beating Monday, the victim of gunmen who attacked a weekend birthday party, injuring nine others and shattering the lives of a close-knit family who moved to the U.S. mainland from Puerto Rico more than a dozen years ago.

The woman, Maritza Bonilla, was dancing with her fiance in the living room about an hour past midnight Saturday when an unknown number of gunmen in a van pulled up to the family’s blue, frame house and shot more than two dozen bullets, one of them striking her in the head, said Wilnelia Bonilla, her sister.

Maritza Bonilla, called Tita by family and friends, collapsed with a bullet in her brain. She was taken to Charter Suburban Hospital, where she had worked afternoons as a student volunteer while attending Paramount High School, and died.

“She was active, outgoing, the loudest in the family,” said Wilnelia Bonilla, who with about 25 family members and friends were celebrating her 17th birthday at the Saturday night party. “It’s going to be so quiet in this house. I just can’t believe she’s gone.”

Also hit by bullets were her father, Elisio Bonilla, 46, and brother, Joseli, 22, as well as seven party guests, including an 8-month-old and his parents. All are expected to recover from their injuries, family members and authorities said.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said they have no suspects in the case, but believe it is gang-related.

Members of the Bonilla family speculate that the drive-by shooting was intended for a party on the next block. Or it may be connected with a young man who was beaten by two youths on the sidewalk nearby less than an hour before the shooting, they said.

“I just want them to find who did it and put them away,” said Eva Bonilla, Maritza’s mother.

The party-goers had just finished opening presents and singing “Happy Birthday” when the gunfire started, family members said. Bullet holes, numbered and marked with chalk by investigators, form a dotted line from left to right across the front of the house, which is decorated with Christmas lights and cardboard cutouts of Santa Claus.

Uncertainty over the reason for the attack mixed with grief Monday. Neither the victim, her sister or brother were involved in gangs, family members said.

They had the grim task of telling family patriarch Elisio Bonilla, who had suffered a heart attack after being treated for a bullet wound to the stomach, that his eldest daughter was dead. He remains hospitalized at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

“She was his baby,” said Angel Medero, Elisio’s brother-in-law.

Elisio Bonilla brought his family from Puerto Rico to find economic opportunities in the United States. He supported his family by working as a machine operator, while his wife stayed home with their children.

Neighbors said they were a close family who always celebrated birthdays and other occasions with parties and the loud strains of salsa music. But the family had never caused any trouble in the four years they lived in the house, neighbors said.

By most measures, the family was well on its way to achieving its dreams of success, with the high school diplomas of the two oldest children on display in the family living room, along with a diploma in electronics from a trade school earned by the son, Joseli.

Maritza Bonilla had completed a two-year course at a beauty college in Bellflower two days before being shot. She was to receive her diploma today, her sister said.

“Ever since junior high school she liked doing hair and makeup for her friends,” said Mauricio Casillas, 19, Wilnelia Bonilla’s boyfriend and a longtime friend of Maritza. “One of our teachers said: ‘All you do is people’s hair. You should just do it for a living.’ ”

Maritza Bonilla had been hospitalized several times with intestinal troubles as a teen-ager, and when she was 11 she was hit in the eye in a pellet gun accident, and the injury required several operations to repair, family members said.

“It seemed like she had one battle after another,” said her cousin, Sandra Stanley, 27. “But even when she was sick, she was smiling.”

Family members said Maritza had started shopping for a wedding dress, and was anxious about passing the state test for cosmetologists. She and her finance, Fermin Lopez, a house painter, had met two years ago at a party similar to the one held Saturday.

“He is really destroyed,” Wilnelia Bonilla said. “She collapsed in his arms.”