Daughters See Mother’s Slaying

As Leticia Morales Carranza lay bleeding from gunshots in her Sun Valley driveway, the woman’s three young daughters watched through the window of the family car, a witness to the killing said Friday.

Police say Carranza had just gotten out of the car about 8:35 p.m. on Thursday when her attacker, armed with a semiautomatic handgun, shot her several times in the chest. Carranza’s three daughters, ages 3, 6 and 10, saw the attack.

One of the daughters cried out, “Mommy, Mommy, please don’t die!” a witness said.

The woman who heard the child’s cries said she was watching television in her house across the street on Vanscoy Avenue when she heard the gunshots. “I thought maybe they were playing with firecrackers, and wondered if I should call the police,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified.

Then she saw the body in the driveway.

The slaying had the appearance of a professional killing because it was carried out so quickly and because nothing was stolen, including the woman’s new sport utility vehicle, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Ron LaRue.

But LaRue said he knows of no motive for the killing, and he did not name any suspects.

The pink stucco home is on a tree-lined street in a working-class neighborhood within earshot of the Golden State Freeway. Neighbors said Carranza and her husband, Ishmael Lopez, who moved into the house two years ago, kept to themselves.

On Friday afternoon, Antonio Morales, 23, visited the house where his sister was killed and dropped to his knees at the site of the killing.

After learning of their sister’s death, Morales and his siblings tried to keep the news hidden from their mother, Maria Guadaloupe Carranza. They feared that the 42-year-old grandmother would not be able to handle the shock. She had just spent two days at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, where she is receiving treatment for a heart murmur.

“But she heard her daughter’s name on the news,” said one family member.

Maria Carranza described her daughter as a fun-loving woman who loved to dance. She loved her children even more.

Other family members said Lopez has been in Tijuana after being turned away at the U.S. border because he could not produce proper documentation. He called from Tijuana on the night of the slaying, family members said.

LaRue said the children did not recognize the man who shot their mother. They described him as Latino, 5 feet 7, and weighing about 130 pounds.

Family members said Carranza, a housewife since dropping out of junior high school 10 years ago, and Lopez, a car mechanic, had no gang ties and they know of no family enemies.