Mother of 2 Is Identified as Victim of Gang Gunfire

A 35-year-old mother of two, walking across the street in broad daylight with her 6-year-old daughter, was identified Sunday as Los Angeles’ latest victim of apparent gang gunfire intended for someone else.

Mercedes Valladares was returning from a fast-food restaurant, where she had picked up lunch for her children shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday, when she was fatally struck by bullets fired by four men in a passing car--the shots apparently aimed at a man standing on the sidewalk nearby, police said.

“Several people were calling to her to get down,” said Los Angeles Police Det. Paul Mize, “but she didn’t react quickly enough.”

Police still had no suspects Sunday.

The dead woman’s husband of 12 years, Mauricio Valladares, said Sunday that she was clutching her daughter’s hand when struck by the gunfire at the corner of West Adams Boulevard and Burnside Avenue, just east of Culver City.

Valladares said that he heard the shots himself while working in a furniture shop across an alley from the couple’s small, one-story home and that a neighbor then shouted, “Your wife’s been shot!”

He said he ran outside and found his wife lying in a pool of blood near the bag of takeout food that she had bought at a restaurant across the street. On Sunday, a memorial of candles and flowers marked the site.

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The shooting of Mercedes Valladares came just two days after Alfredo Perez, 30, a fifth-grade teacher, was critically wounded by a stray bullet fired while teaching a class in the library at Figueroa Street Elementary School. The shooting of Perez--who remained in a coma Sunday at Martin Luther Jr./Drew Medical Center--was blamed on errant gang gunfire directed at rivals.

Police said Valladares and her daughter, Mercy, were stepping onto the curb when the four suspects drove by and fired at the man standing on the sidewalk. That man dropped to the ground when he heard the gunfire and was not struck, police said, adding that they believe that he knew the men were shooting at him.

The girl was not injured, but Valladares was shot in the forehead, neck and shoulder. As she lay bleeding, police said, the intended victim ran away and the gunmen sped off in a red, four-door Hyundai with tinted windows.

Valladares was taken to UCLA Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

“When I came, I saw her lying there,” her husband recalled Sunday. “I could do nothing. I lost my wife.”

The couple owned the small furniture finishing shop within view of the home where they lived with Mercy and their other daughter, Anna, 10. “What am I going to tell them?” Mauricio Valladares asked, throwing up his hands.

He said he has heard gunfire before in the neighborhood, just blocks south of the Santa Monica Freeway, but not during the day.

“This should not happen,” he said. “She was just walking.”