Pregnant mother caught in gunfire fight involving up to 8 people dies after getting shot in head, police say
A California woman three months pregnant with her second child was fatally shot in the head after she got caught in a multi-person shootout, police said.
On May 18, just before 6 p.m., Hemet police said they responded to reports of a group of several women fighting.
The altercation grew to involve as many as eight people.
“While driving to the scene, 911 operators received information that someone had started shooting near the crowd,” police said.
Officers arriving at the scene discovered three people shot and learned two others injured had already gone to a local hospital.
Tameka Haynes, 27, was among the five wounded and reportedly an innocent bystander. She was airlifted to the Riverside County Medical System’s trauma center but later died from her injuries.
Haynes reportedly leaves behind an 8-year-old son named Eric.
“She has a lot of family, she's very loved, and we don't understand the details or anything,” Stevlyn Sandridge, a relative of the victim, told KTLA. “We don't know anything about why she was killed and why was they shooting into a crowd of innocent people.”
“We will definitely want to see someone held accountable for what happened to her,” Sandridge said. “She was taken away from her family.”
A GoFundMe page noted Haynes, who those close to her called “Millie,” was “loving, encouraging, forgiving.”
“Millie was the bright light in any room she walked in, bringing in pure happiness, good energy and love!” the page reads of the woman who was “someone you could always come to for love and care.”
"If you knew Mille,” the tribute concludes, “you knew a true friend.”
Police continue to investigate the incident and have not yet released a motive for the shootings.
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