Vanessa Malaepule, 34
Vanessa Malaepule, a 34-year-old woman of Samoan descent, was shot and killed Sunday, Nov. 2, along with four others, while visiting a homeless encampment under the Santa Fe off-ramp of the Long Beach Freeway, authorities said.
Malaepule, an unemployed single mother of six -- ages 8, 10, 13, 14, 15 and 16 at the time -- was with her boyfriend, Lorenzo Perez Villacana, a 44-year-old Latino, at the time of the slayings.
She lived in a nearby home with her mother and children.
Long Beach police said all of the dead were friends who had been socializing with one another for some time.
-- Louis Sahagun
Photo: Susie Latweeka (left) cries with her cousin Fiaora Tuitasi (right) near the location in Long Beach where Latweeka's mother, Vanessa Malaepule was found shot to death. Credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times
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