Indiana Woman Fatally Shot When Showing Up at Wrong Home Address for Cleaning Duties

Law enforcement officials in the state are weighing whether to file charges against a homeowner who allegedly fatally shot a female after she accidentally arrived to the incorrect address thinking she was scheduled to clean a property.

Police discovered Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez, 32 years old, dead early Wednesday morning at the entrance of a home in a suburban town, a community of approximately 10,000 people near Indianapolis.

She belonged to a cleaning crew that had gone to the incorrect house, police stated in an official release.

Authorities have not publicly identified the shooter, but investigators turned over the results from the investigation to Kent Eastwood, the county prosecutor, on Friday.

This case will highlight Indiana’s “castle doctrine” laws, which allow a person to use deadly force to stop what they reasonably believe is an illegal entry into their home.

But the killing has shocked many. Rios Perez’s husband, her husband, told WRTV that he was standing with her at the front door but didn’t realize she had been shot until she collapsed into his arms, injured. On a fundraising page, her sibling said that she was a parent to four children.

A majority of US states have comparable statutes to Indiana in place, as reported by the national legislative research group.

In comparable incidents in other states, prosecutors have successfully brought charges against people who used a firearm outside their homes, such as a guilty plea by an 86-year-old man who shot Ralph Yarl after the youth came to his door by mistake. In another state, a man was convicted of second-degree murder for killing a female inside a car who drove down his driveway by mistake.

This tragic event highlights continuing discussions about self-defense laws and their application in everyday situations.