Errant Bullet Shatters L.A. Family

Laudeina Salazar knelt beside her 5-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter, decorating the family Christmas tree in her Craftsman-style home near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

At the same time Friday, an argument broke out among a group of people on a street 100 yards away. At least four shots were fired.

One bullet ripped through a screen, burst through the wooden door and passed through the 39-year-old mother’s neck. She dropped, bleeding heavily, before her family, and died Sunday at County-USC Medical Center of her wounds.

“This is so difficult,” said her husband, Juan Ovando. “Some moments I am OK, then in the next, I am not. It is very hard for me to talk about it.”

Investigators call the crime one of the more shocking to hit South Los Angeles this year. Police do not believe the shot was aimed at Salazar’s residence in the 3900 block of South Budlong Avenue.

It was the second time in two months that a young mother had been killed in front of her children in Los Angeles by what appeared to be a random shot.

On Nov. 2, Monica Noriega, 35, was slain in the harbor area as she was getting out of a car to fetch a pacifier for her 2-year-old daughter. As in Friday’s incident, the bullet that struck Noriega was fired from a neighboring street, apparently as a result of dispute that in no way involved her.

LAPD Det. Don Richards said police have traced Salazar’s fatal shooting to the disturbance on Leighton Avenue. There, witnesses saw a group of men loitering on a lawn and sidewalk, making a commotion.

At some point, shots were fired from among those in the group, and the bullets were sent whistling westward toward Salazar’s first-floor unit in a two-story duplex, he said. More than one gun was fired, he said, and, in all, four bullets struck nearby buildings, though Salazar was the only person hit.

Immediately after the gunfire, some people in the neighborhood reported, they saw three cars speeding away, Richards said. Police hope more people heard or saw something, and they are asking for tips.

“We need all the help we can get,” the detective said. “We are asking the community ... to draw a line and say, ‘Enough of these senseless murders. These people can’t be indiscriminately shooting. A 39-year-old mother has lost her life.’ ”

Ovando said that the family is from Nueva Santa Rosa, Guatemala, and that a daughter, 17, still lives in that country. Clearly distraught, he described his wife as a beloved partner and mother.

“She was very sweet and kind, liked by everyone, and never had problems with anyone,” he said.

Salazar’s death ricocheted among those close to her, including neighbors, and local police, who have started a fund to help the family.

A makeshift shrine of poinsettias and candles adorned the family home Tuesday in the neighborhood a few blocks from the Coliseum.

Neighbors and friends dropped by throughout Tuesday to pay their respects. James Chapman, who owns the property next door, described Ovando, a handyman, and the victim as extremely quiet and likable.

“I was upstairs and heard three shots, then a barrage of five or six -- maybe more,” Chapman recalled of the night of the shooting.

On Tuesday, he was helping clean up the family home and taking calls as the family arranged for Salazar’s burial. He pointed to the spot where, next to a Christmas tree decorated with family photos, and a large plastic Santa, he had helped remove the bloodstained love seat after Salazar was struck.

Her 5-year-old son “keeps asking, ‘Where is she? Where is Mom?’ ” Chapman said, shaking his head, “even though he was right there when she was shot.”

Police are asking anyone with information to call the Los Angeles Police Department at (213) 847-1310 or, after hours, at (877) LAWFULL.