Robber Shoots Woman as Daughter Watches

A woman was shot in front of her 16-year-old daughter by one of three home-invasion robbers, police said.

Two men broke into the victims’ apartment through a screen door about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and demanded money.

“Frustrated by her response,” one of the men shot the 35-year-old mother in the neck, seriously wounding her, said LAPD Det. Joel Price.

The men then ransacked the home and found $4,000, he said. Sometime during the robbery the 16-year-old saw another robber--a woman--waiting for the men to finish.

Price said the apartment complex in the 20400 block of Cohasset Street is a known drug-dealing center and surmised that the robbers might have had the wrong apartment.

“I can’t imagine why they would have targeted this mother and daughter,” Price said.

Police described the gunman as a fair-skinned, 19- to 20-year-old Latino wearing light-colored pants, a long-sleeved gray shirt and white tennis shoes. He weighs about 140 pounds and is 6 feet tall. He brandished a blue steel handgun.

The other man, who police said wielded a knife, is described as a heavyset, dark-skinned Latino wearing blue pants, a gray shirt and black tennis shoes. He is said to be 28 to 32 years old and about 5 feet 8.

Police said the woman, an 18- to 20-year-old Latina, is 5-feet-8 and weighs 150 pounds.

Anyone with information can call the West Valley Detectives Bureau at (818) 756-8553.