Reward Offered in Woman’s Slaying

Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs and the Los Angeles Police Department’s Homicide Division have announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the slaying of a woman in front of her children last October.

According to witnesses, 26-year-old Leticia Morales Carranza was shot in her Sun Valley driveway on Vanscoy Avenue as her three young daughters watched through a window of the family car.

“It’s kind of hard to imagine anything more horrifying than three kids seeing their mother killed,” Wachs said. “You want to keep this guy from killing again.”

City Council officials often make rewards available when they are approached by the LAPD. Usually this happens when the police need new information for a case that has taken a long time to solve.

In this case, it has been six months.

Police said the crime happened as Carranza returned home from shopping with her daughters, ages 3, 6 and 10, on the night of Oct. 24.

Carranza left the car to open the garage door when she was approached by a man with a gun.

Witnesses described the suspect as a Latino, 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 130 pounds. The police released a composite sketch of the suspect.

The man asked Carranza a question and then shot her several times in the chest, police said.

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

Carranza died in her driveway.

“Somebody out there knows who did this,” Wachs said.

Police ask that anyone with information call North Hollywood homicide detectives at (818) 623-4075.