Gloria Tovar, 59
Gloria Tovar, a 59-year-old Latina, was shot and killed early Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014, as she was sitting in her parked car in the 12900 block of Filmore Street in Pacoima, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Tovar was waiting in her car to pick up a friend for church when she was shot in the head around 6:45 a.m., investigators said. She died at the scene.
“It’s like what everyone fears,” Tovar’s daughter, Lucia Montano told the Los Angeles Times. “She probably didn’t even notice him.”
Investigators believe Tovar was one of three people killed in a one-hour shooting spree that morning in the Pacoima-San Fernando area.
Mariana Franco, 23, was shot and killed about 5:50 a.m. in the 1400 block of Celis Street in San Fernando as she was riding in a car with her family to go to early morning Mass. And Michael Planells, 29, was shot and killed in the parking lot of the Sylmar Recreation Center at 13109 Borden Avenue as he was searching for cans to recycle.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has charged Alexander Hernandez, 34, of Sylmar, with five counts of capital murder and 10 counts of attempted murder in connection with the apparently random shootings.
Prosecutors say Hernandez shot at 15 people in the San Fernando Valley between March and August of 2014, killing five and injuring eight.
Hernandez is also accused of killing Sergio Sanchez, 35, as he was driving home from work early in the morning of March 14, 2014, near the Roxford Street offramp to the 210 Freeway, and Gildardo Morales, 48, as he was driving to work in Pacoima on Aug. 21.
Note: Law enforcement has placed Tovar's autopsy on a so-called security hold. The Times will update this entry once the hold is lifted.
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