Hoosier State Woman Fatally Shot When Showing Up at Wrong Residence for Cleaning Duties
Authorities in Indiana are weighing whether to file charges against a homeowner who reportedly fatally shot a female when she accidentally arrived to the wrong address where she believed assigned to clean a home.
Police discovered Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez, 32 years old, deceased early Wednesday morning on the front porch of a home in Whitestown, a community of approximately 10,000 residents near Indianapolis.
She belonged to a cleaning crew that had arrived at the wrong address, according to police in an official release.
Officials did not publicly named the person who fired, but investigators turned over the results from the investigation to the Boone County prosecutor, the local district attorney, on Friday.
This case will focus on Indiana’s self-defense statutes, which allow a person to use deadly force to stop what they reasonably believe is an illegal entry into their home.
However the killing has stunned the community. Rios Perez’s husband, Mauricio Velazquez, told WRTV that he was present with her at the front door but was unaware she had been hit until she collapsed into his arms, injured. On a online donation site, her sibling said that she was a parent to four children.
Thirty-one states have comparable statutes to Indiana in place, as reported by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In similar cases elsewhere, prosecutors have filed criminal charges against people who opened fire outside their homes, such as a admission of guilt by an elderly man who fired at a Black teenager after the youth came to his door by mistake. In another state, a person was found guilty of second-degree murder for killing a female inside a car who drove down his property by mistake.
This tragic event underscores continuing discussions about stand-your-ground statutes and their application in everyday situations.
