A man accused of shooting a pregnant mother and her sister while they sat in their car outside their Canoga Park apartment is now facing murder charges, according to prosecutors.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said Wednesday that it had amended its felony complaint against Walter Francisco Rodriguez Garcia, 32, of Gardena and charged him with the murder of 22-year-old Adriana Jimenez and her unborn child.
Jimenez, who was 16 weeks pregnant and also the mother of a 6-year-old girl, was left brain dead by the Aug. 23 shooting. Her family, which is continuing to raise money on GoFundMe for funeral and medical costs, said she was taken off life support Friday.
Her older sister, 24-year-old Maria Fernanda Jimenez, was shot in the throat and shoulder. She is expected to survive.
Shortly after the shooting, Garcia was arrested and charged with three counts of attempted murder, with special allegations that he personally and intentionally discharged a firearm, according to the criminal complaint.
Garcia, who pleaded not guilty on those charges, has not responded to the new charges, according to court records.
In a phone interview, Leonardo Ayala, the uncle of the two women, said that he was happy to hear about the criminal charges and that they were needed to bring justice for his niece.
The shooting occurred in the 8300 block of Northgate Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Police said the sisters were sitting inside a black Toyota Camry, parked in an alley outside their apartment, when a gunman walked up and opened fire.
On that day, Ayala said, his nieces had finished working as cooks at a Thai restaurant around 2 a.m. and decided to go out with two cousins. Adriana Jimenez’s boyfriend, who was the father of the unborn baby, was also with the group.
He said Jimenez was driving and pulled into the alley that led to the parking lot of their apartment. She and her sister were in the car waiting for one of their cousins to move their car out of a parking space when the shooting happened, he said. Police said the shooting occurred shortly before 8 a.m.
Ayala and police said Garcia was the ex-boyfriend of one of the cousins and alleged that he also attempted to shoot Jimenez’s boyfriend. A motive for the shooting remains under investigation.
“It’s all very maddening,” Ayala said. “I’ll never understand why he did what he did.”
He said the death of his niece came days before she planned to have a gender reveal party as part of her 23rd birthday celebration this Friday.
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