Hoosier State Woman Fatally Shot When Showing Up at Incorrect Residence for Cleaning Duties

Law enforcement officials in the state are weighing possible criminal charges against a resident who reportedly fatally shot a woman when she accidentally arrived to the incorrect location where she believed scheduled to clean a property.

Police discovered Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez, 32 years old, dead early Wednesday morning at the entrance of a home in Whitestown, an area of about 10,000 residents near Indianapolis.

She was part of a cleaning team that had arrived at the incorrect house, police stated in an official release.

Authorities have not publicly identified the person who fired, but police submitted their findings from the probe to Kent Eastwood, the local district attorney, on Friday.

This case will focus on Indiana’s self-defense statutes, which permit residents to use lethal force to prevent what they reasonably believe is an unlawful intrusion into their home.

However the killing has shocked many. Rios Perez’s husband, Mauricio Velazquez, stated to local media that he was present with her at the home’s entrance but was unaware she had been hit until she fell into his arms, bleeding. On a online donation site, her sibling said that she was a mother of four.

Thirty-one states have similar laws to Indiana on the books, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In similar cases in other states, prosecutors have successfully brought charges against people who opened fire outside their residences, such as a admission of guilt by an elderly man who fired at a Black teenager after the youth approached his home accidentally. In New York, a man was convicted of second-degree murder for fatally shooting a female in a vehicle who drove down his property by mistake.