Hoosier State Female Killed After Arriving at Incorrect Home Address for Cleaning Duties
Authorities in Indiana are considering whether to file charges against a resident who reportedly fatally shot a female when she mistakenly went to the wrong location thinking she was assigned to clean a home.
Police discovered Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez, 32 years old, dead early Wednesday morning at the entrance of a residence in Whitestown, a community of about 10,000 residents outside Indianapolis.
She was part of a cleaning crew that had gone to the wrong address, police stated in a press statement.
Authorities have not publicly named the person who fired, but investigators turned over the results from the investigation to Kent Eastwood, the county prosecutor, on Friday afternoon.
The incident will focus on Indiana’s “castle doctrine” laws, which allow a person to use deadly force to prevent what they reasonably believe is an unlawful intrusion into their dwelling.
But the killing has stunned the community. The victim’s spouse, Mauricio Velazquez, stated to local media that he was standing with her at the home’s entrance but didn’t realize she had been hit until she fell into his arms, bleeding. On a fundraising page, her brother said that she was a mother of four.
Thirty-one states have comparable statutes like Indiana’s in place, according to the national legislative research group.
In comparable incidents elsewhere, authorities have filed criminal charges against people who used a firearm outside their residences, including a guilty plea by an elderly man who fired at a Black teenager after the youth came to his door by mistake. In New York, a person was found guilty of homicide for fatally shooting a female in a vehicle who drove down his driveway by mistake.
This tragic event underscores continuing discussions about stand-your-ground statutes and how they are applied in everyday situations.
