A mother of three was shot and killed in front of her 2-year-old daughter Tuesday in South Los Angeles, authorities said.
The victim, identified by family members as Yolanda Major, was driving to visit her mother when she spotted a friend and stopped her car in the 10900 block of South Hobart Boulevard, the Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Department said in a news release issued Wednesday.
Major and a 30-year-old male friend were talking when another car, described as a white Dodge station wagon, drove up and opened fire, sheriff’s officials said.
The 28-year-old mother was struck in the upper torso and died at the scene, sheriff’s officials said. Her friend was hit in the leg and is in stable condition.
Another friend and Major’s 2-year-old daughter, who were in the vehicle, were not injured during what police say may be a gang-related shooting.
A memorial, pictured below, grew Wednesday evening near the intersection of South Hobard Boulevard and Ponty Street, where Major was slain.
Major's mother, who said she was not familiar with the neighborhood, cradled her grandchildren near the intersection where their mother was killed.
"I had to watch my son tell his boys that their mother was gone," Major's mother, Ava Guerrero-Bucklor, said through tears.
"And I had to let little Michael say, 'Daddy, I want to go to heaven to be with my mom.' ... Who could do something like this?"
Anyone with information about the shooting is urged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at 323-980-5500 or by logging on to http://lacrimestoppers.org