(WHITESTOWN, Ind.) — An Indiana man has been charged with voluntary manslaughter for fatally shooting a cleaning woman who mistakenly went to the wrong home, prosecutors announced Monday, nearly two weeks after the mother of four was killed.
The Boone County prosecutor, Kent Eastwood, said the decision to file the charge follows a “comprehensive examination,” in which his office determined the man’s actions did not fall under the legal protections provided by the Indiana Stand Your Ground law.
The shooting occurred the morning of Nov. 5 in a subdivision of Whitestown, located approximately 20 miles northwest of Indianapolis, police said.
Officers responding to a 911 call reporting a possible home invasion shortly before 7 a.m. found the woman dead on the front porch of the residence with a gunshot wound, Whitestown police said.
The gun had been fired from inside by a resident of the home, police said.
Police later determined the woman was part of a cleaning crew that had mistakenly arrived at the wrong address, and that “the facts gathered do not support” that a home invasion occurred.
The Boone County Coroner’s Office identified the shooting victim as 32-year-old Maria Florinda Rios Perez de Velasquez of Indianapolis. She died from a gunshot wound to the head, the coroner’s office said.
Velasquez’s husband told Indianapolis ABC affiliate WRTV that they had been cleaning homes for seven months and he was with her when she was shot.
“I never thought it was a shot, but I realized when my wife took two steps back, she looked like she’d been hit in the head,” her husband, Mauricio Velasquez, told WRTV in Spanish.
“She fell into my arms, and I saw the blood. It went everywhere,” he told the station.
They have four children, the youngest 11 months old, according to WRTV.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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