The mom of four who was gunned down after arriving at the wrong address for a cleaning job was shot in the head through the door, officials said — as her grieving husband blasted her killer as “an animal.”
Maria Florinda Ríos Pérez, a mom of four, was shot dead in Indianapolis, Indiana, on Wednesday morning after trying to get into the wrong house using keys she had been provided for a cleaning job.
The gunshot came from “inside the home,” Whitestown Police Captain John Jurkash told reporters at a briefing Wednesday.
The front door was never opened, and the homeowner shot through it, police told WRTV. Photos taken by local media show a bullet hole in the front door.
Pérez’s husband, Mauricio Velazquez, witnessed the horror and blasted his wife’s killer as “a dog” on Friday as he demanded justice.
“What I need now is for there to be justice because he took her life in that sense, I don’t believe that’s human,” he told WRTV.
“He’s an animal, a dog, a deer, to kill in that way,” Velazquez said.
“Now, I am father and mother for my children, for my daughters — and he’s happy at home,” he added of the shooter.
The 32-year-old mom, who ran the cleaning business with her husband, had believed the sprawling home in Whitestown was the one they’d been hired to clean, according to police.
The couple checked the address twice and circled the neighborhood to make sure they were in the right spot, according to a police report cited by IndyStar.
But as they tried to get the keys they’d been given into the keyhole, a single bullet whizzed through the front door.
The mom dropped to the ground, gushing blood on the porch as Velazquez watched on.
A 911 call went out at around the same time, 7 a.m., reporting a home invasion at the address, but Whitestown Metropolitan Police soon ruled out that the couple was trying to break into the house.
Pérez was declared dead at the scene. The Boone County Coroner’s Office later determined she died as a result of a gunshot wound to the head.
Cops had not arrested the unidentified shooter as of Friday.
Whitestown police called it a “complex and evolving case” and said they are “committed to conducting a thorough and sensitive inquiry to determine whether charges are appropriate,” according to the Washington Post.
The Boone County Prosecutor’s Office said they consider the case a homicide and will likely have an update on whether the shooter will be charged next week.
Indiana has strong “stand your ground” laws, allowing homeowners to use fatal force to protect themselves and their property.
The law notes that a person can use “deadly force” in a place where they are “lawfully present” if they “reasonably believe force is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury or the commission of a forcible felony.”
A Whitestown police rep didn’t immediately return questions from The Post on Friday.
