A Milwaukee teenager is charged with first-degree reckless homicide after prosecutors say she fatally shot another woman during a road rage dispute Aug. 17.
Mariah Ruiz, 18, told police she was having a bad day and had been fighting with her mom before the shooting.
Ruiz told officers that during the road rage encounter she threatened to call ICE on 44-year-old Minerva Hernandez-Lopez, chased her after Hernandez-Lopez "flicked her off," then began shooting at her after the woman backed into her vehicle.
If convicted, Ruiz faces up to 65 years in prison.
According to the criminal complaint:
At around 2:37 p.m. Aug. 17, Milwaukee police responded to a report of a shooting victim at the intersection of South 10th Street and West Lapham Boulevard. When officers arrived, they found Hernandez-Lopez outside of the driver's door lying on the ground.
Police discovered Hernandez-Lopez had two gunshot wounds. Despite life-saving measures from officers, Hernandez-Lopez died from her injuries. Police recovered five .40 caliber cartridge casings and two bullet fragments from the area.
An autopsy conducted by the Milwaukee Medical Examiner's Office said Hernandez-Lopez had suffered from a single gunshot wound to the left shoulder that exited near the base of her neck, before it reentered the left neck and reexited the right side of the neck.
A 16-year-old friend, who was in the front seat of Ruiz's car, said Ruiz cut Hernandez-Lopez's SUV off while they were on they way to the El Rey Supermarket.
The boy said Hernandez-Lopez pulled up to Ruiz and said, "Little girl, you need to drive." He said Ruiz responded with "B----, I'll call immigration on you" while pulling out a firearm.
Hernandez-Lopez continued following them to the 1000 block of West Burnham Street and pulled up next to their vehicle, he said.
The boy said Hernandez-Lopez was recording the encounter on her cellphone because she felt Ruiz should not have a gun. The boy said he pulled Ruiz's hand down because he thought she was going to shoot Hernandez-Lopez.
Ruiz and Hernandez-Lopez followed each other a short distance before Hernandez-Lopez stopped and "brake checked" Ruiz's vehicle on West Lapham Street, he said.
Ruiz began shooting toward Hernandez-Lopez, he said, and then shot at her again while Hernandez-Lopez was making a U-turn at South Ninth Street.
Investigators later recovered security surveillance footage of part of the confrontation that captured five gunshots.
Later, Ruiz went to the Milwaukee Police District 2 station with several family members and friends, including her mom and a 16-year-old friend, and turned herself in to police.
A detective came to the station and searched Ruiz's vehicle with consent and recovered a .40 caliber Model 23 Glock handgun in the passenger seat.
Police later determined the handgun was consistent with being the firearm that fired the five casings recovered from the scene.
Ruiz admitted to police that she shot and killed Hernandez-Lopez and said she wrote an apology letter to the victim's family. She also admitted that she had been involved in a honking incident and that Hernandez-Lopez yelled at her in Spanish, prompting her to threaten to call immigration officials.
Ruiz said she didn't mean to hurt Hernandez-Lopez and wasn't sure why she did it.
Ruiz's was scheduled to make her initial appearance in court Aug. 21, but court records were not immediately updated.
Adrienne Davis is a general assignment and breaking news reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Got any tips or stories to share? Contact Adrienne at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @AdriReportss.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Teen charged in Milwaukee road rage shooting that killed woman