Mother of 4 Slain, Husband Wounded in East L.A. Violence

A mother of four was fatally wounded by gunfire on the front porch of her East Los Angeles home as she intervened in a fight between her husband and a group of suspected gang members, authorities reported Wednesday.

The death Tuesday night of 24-year-old Maria Zazueta Martinez and the wounding of her husband, Vincent Zazueta, 27, ended a sequence of events that began with the theft of a gold necklace, Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators said.

Vincent Zazueta, who was shot in the lower back and suffered superficial wounds to his head and left arm, was in stable condition at County-USC Medical Center.

His wife was pronounced dead at the hospital at 9:57 p.m., about 20 minutes after the shooting in the 600 block of South Eastman Avenue. At the time, the couple’s four children--two boys age 9 and 2, and two girls age 7 and 3--were inside the house. On Wednesday afternoon, they were in the care of their grandmother.

“I haven’t told them,� Evelyn Zazueta said. “I don’t even know how to tell them.�

Sheriff’s homicide detectives sought the public’s help in identifying and locating four to six assailants who fled in a brown 1970 to 1974 Ford van with a gold or beige six-inch-wide horizontal stripe.

Anyone with information is asked to call the homicide bureau at (213) 974-4341.

Deputies and relatives of the victims provided sketchy, sometimes confusing accounts of events leading up to the shootings. They agreed that the trouble began when the suspected gang members committed a strong-arm robbery on Eastman Avenue in which a teen-ager ran off with a gold necklace.

Enrique Silva, a live-in friend of the Zazuetas, chased down one of the thieves, Deputy George Ducoulombier said. Silva fought with the thief, the deputy said, but he escaped and rejoined his companions, who had continued to cruise the neighborhood in the van.

“I don’t know these guys,� Silva said Wednesday. “I’d never seen them before.� Apparently seeking revenge against Silva, the suspects drove to the Zazueta home. Vincent Zazueta confronted at least four men in the front courtyard, Ducoulombier said.

Zazueta’s mother and aunt said they witnessed the events from inside the house. They said that after Vincent Zazueta told the men that nobody was hiding inside, he was accused of lying and attacked by the men, who were armed with pipes and a handgun.

Vincent Zazueta’s aunt, Margaret Gonzales, said her nephew was trying to protect his family.

“He tried to help the best he could,� Gonzales said. “He was just fighting for his life.�

Maria Zazueta Martinez had just stepped outside when the gunfire began.

“She didn’t even scream,� Evelyn Zazueta said. “She was standing in the doorway and she just fell. We thought she had fainted because her husband was shot.�

The assailants fled in the van after the shootings, family members said.

“There are gangs here, but they never bothered us,� Gonzales said.

Vincent Zazueta, who works as an X-ray technician at a Lynwood plant, was unaware for several minutes that his wife had also been shot, his mother said.

“When my son comes out� of the hospital, Evelyn Zazueta said Wednesday, “he wants to kill everybody.

“He wants revenge.�