DORAL, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida mother is asking for anyone with information regarding a shooter who killed her teenage daughter in the parking lot of a Southwest Miami-Dade strip mall to come forward.
A week after 17-year-old Gabriela Aldana was killed outside of Hookah Palace, Susana Martinez-Gispert, her mother, spoke to the media to plea for a witness to reach out to police.
According to Miami-Dade Police, a black Mercedes-Benz with three men inside pulled up to the strip mall in the area of Southwest 26th Street and 122nd Avenue, just after 2 a.m., May 24.
“Gabriela was my life — her and I alone for six years,” Martinez-Gispert said in Spanish. “Everything I had, they took away from me. I called her and said, ‘Come home now. Look at the time. I don’t like that you’re out there. Come back now.’ She responded, ‘OK. I’m leaving,’ and that was that.”
The vehicle approached Aldana and shots were fired from inside of the vehicle, fatally injuring her.
“We are trying to search for a black Mercedes-Benz that if anyone that was there, if they have seen it, please give us a call,” Miami-Dade Police Detective Jessica Alvarez said.
Detectives said approximately 40 people were in the parking lot at the time and that the teenager was not the intended target of the shooter. It remains unknown if the shooter knew Aldana.
“She would always tell me everything she would do before she would do it,” Martinez Gispert said. “She would count on me. We would support each other.”
Her mother said she had given her daughter permission to go out with four or five of her friends that night and never expected something like this would happen.
“I loved her very much. She was my life,” Martinez-Gispert said in Spanish. “I have a mother too, but she was my daughter, my life. I think you suffer more when you lose a daughter than when you lose a mother. I wish it wasn’t like this. If someone saw something, please have a heart. Please remember Gabriela. We need justice.”
Investigators said they do not have a model for the Mercedes-Benz they are searching for but do know it is a sedan.
If you have any information on this fatal shooting, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a $3,000 reward.
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