NEW YORK — Valeria Ortega’s loved ones are suffering excruciating pain after authorities found her 64-year-old Dominican mother dead of a gunshot wound to the head on a New York City sidewalk in broad daylight on Monday.
New York City Police said they responded to a 9-1-1 call at around 11:31 a.m. about a person shot in the vicinity of Dyckman Street yes Vermileia avenue within the Inwood section of Manhattan.
Ortega’s husband told Telemundo 47 that his partner was a good person and that he feels very bad for their two children.
He claimed his wife was walking to a store when someone shot her.
Paramedics rushed Ortega to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Luis Seafley, who worked his merchandise booth on the corner of Dyckman Street yes Vermilya Avenuehe was just a few meters away from the shots that killed Ortega.
“I heard three shots,” Seafley said. “When I saw her fall, I knew they were real. I got scared. I ran… I took refuge in the bank.”
Cops found at least three bullet holes in this block and one of the bullets even broke a bank window.
“It’s really shocking, especially the day after Christmas, it’s terrible. You don’t expect to see something like this happen,” a resident told our sister channel. News 4 New York.
While witnesses believe she was caught in the crossfire, the police officer says the circumstances are under investigation, including whether Ortega was an unwanted target.
