Ricardo Baltazar Mota, 33

Ricardo Baltazar Mota, a 33-year-old Latino, was killed Monday, March 27, after he was shot in the 800 block of North Garfield Avenue in Montebello, according to Los Angeles County coroner’s records. 

Investigators think Mota met someone in the parking lot of Our Lady of Miraculous Medal Catholic Church that evening while parishioners were inside during a prayer group meeting, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Marcelo Quintero said. 

Around 8:45 p.m., the Montebello Police Department received calls about shots fired in an area near the church, Quintero said. 

“The street is full of apartment complexes, so the officers assumed it came from one of those complexes, but they didn’t find anything,” Quintero said. “Then, a few minutes later, the parishioners came out to the parking lot and found a man slumped over in his car.”

Mota was sitting behind the wheel of a car and had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, Quintero said. The shots had gone through the driver’s window and the windshield. Authorities think Mota may have been trying to drive away when he was shot.

Mota’s car had struck another vehicle in the parking lot, Quintero said. The parishioners didn’t know Mota, he said, and they hadn’t heard any gunfire while they were in the church. No one has reported seeing the shooter.

Mota, who had addresses in Pomona and Los Angeles, was pronounced dead at 8:56 p.m., according to coroner’s records. 

The sheriff’s Homicide Bureau is investigating the case for the Montebello Police Department, Quintero said, and is trying to find someone who may have seen Mota and the person he met in the church parking lot.

Anyone with information should call the 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.