Inset: Adriana Jimenez (GoFundMe). Background: The area in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Canoga Park, Calif., where Adriana Jimenez was shot in the head while sitting in a car with her sister (KABC/YouTube).
A young California mom who was 16 weeks pregnant and had a 6-year-old daughter was shot in the head while sitting in a car with her sister, who also got shot in the throat. The 22-year-old mother was taken off life support on Friday after she was declared brain-dead.
"We feel devastated," said Leonardo Ayala, uncle of victim Adriana Jimenez, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Sunday.
"We still can't believe that this happened," Ayala said. "We don't want to accept that [Adriana] is not going to be with us."
Jimenez had been on life support since the Aug. 23 shooting after suffering a "devastating gunshot wound to the head," according to a GoFundMe launched by her family.
The gunman who fatally shot Jimenez walked up to the Toyota Camry she was in with her sister and opened fire on them while they were sitting in an alley waiting to park around 8 a.m., police say.
The sisters had finished working as cooks at a Thai restaurant around 2 a.m. and later went out with two cousins and Jimenez's boyfriend, who was the father of her unborn child. Jimenez was behind the wheel when they returned to their apartment and pulled into an alley to wait for a car to be moved to park, her family says.
The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Walter Francisco Rodriguez Garcia, also attempted to shoot Jimenez's boyfriend, according to police. He was arrested two days later.
"I still want to know why he did what he did," Ayala told the Times.
Garcia is facing three counts of attempted murder, with special allegations that he personally and intentionally discharged a firearm. Prosecutors have said they expect to upgrade the charges against Garcia now that Jimenez has been taken off life support.
"Her birthday is on Sept. 11," Ayala told local ABC affiliate KABC. "That day they were going to do the gender reveal for her baby," he said. "Sadly, her baby also died."
Describing Jimenez's 6-year-old daughter, Ayala added, "That's the hardest part, knowing the little girl calls out for her mom and cries for her."
Jimenez's sister survived the shooting after the bullet that struck her throat barely missed her vocal cords and jugular vein, the Times reports.
"The doctor said had it been just a few centimeters back, the bullet would have taken her life," Ayala told the newspaper.
The motive for the shooting has not been released.