Adrianna Aryanna Kirkendall-Sosa, 20

Adrianna Aryanna Kirkendall-Sosa, a 20-year-old Latina, was fatally shot Saturday, April 16, in the 3000 block of 70th Street in Long Beach, according to Los Angeles County coroner's records.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies were called to the 8200 block of 70th Street in Long Beach about 1 a.m. after a resident reported that a man was pounding on the side door of her house, gasping for air and calling for help, said Lt. Eddie Hernandez.

Deputies arrived and found Jose Jesus Rivera-Olivarez, 35, on the woman’s porch. Rivera-Olivarez, a resident of Compton, was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:23 a.m., according to coroner’s records.

When investigators contacted Rivera-Olivarez's family, they learned he had last been seen in his car with his girlfriend, Kirkendall-Sosa, Hernandez said.

Investigators returned to 70th Street about 10 a.m. and found Kirkendall-Sosa in the passenger seat of Rivera-Olivarez’s car, which was parked about 50 yards from where his body was discovered, Hernandez said.

Deputies said Kirkendall-Sosa appeared to have been shot in the back of the head. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:13 a.m., according to coroner’s records.

Hernandez said medical examiners believe Rivera-Olivarez was hit on the head with a blunt object and then had a heart attack "as a result of running for his life from the perpetrator, who we believe was in the car."

Rivera-Olivarez died just outside the city limits of Long Beach, in the Sheriff's Department's jurisdiction.

Kirkendall-Sosa was found just inside the city borders, Hernandez said, but because the cases are related, the sheriff's Homicide Bureau has taken over both investigations.

Kirkendall-Sosa had two children, ages 2 and 4, according to Angel Ramos, the uncle of her youngest child. And during the autopsy, investigators discovered she was nine weeks pregnant, according to coroner's records.

Ramos said Kirkendall-Sosa grew up in foster care and had "some problems" he wouldn't describe that resulted in her own children being placed in foster homes.

She parted amicably with Ramos' brother, Ramos said, and had been staying with Ramos until a week and a half before she died.

"Regardless of the problems she had, she was a very, very good mom," Ramos said. "She always made sure she went to visit her kids. To her, they were her world, and I wish people would have just given her a chance. I was the one who took her to the programs so she could get her kids back, and she was changing herself, changing her way of being."

About a week and a half ago, Ramos said, Kirkendall-Sosa moved out of his house. He said it seemed that she was concerned about something, but she didn't say why she was leaving.

"Why would they want to kill her? This was a girl who was only 20 years old, and she didn't get to make it to 21," Ramos said. "Do you hear what I'm saying? It's messed up."

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. Those wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477. 

Contact the Homicide Report. Follow @latimeshomicide on Twitter.