Expectant mother left brain dead by Canoga Park shooting taken off life support, family says

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Set us as preferred A pregnant mother who was declared brain dead last week after she and her sister were shot while sitting in a car outside their Canoga Park apartment was taken off life support, according to her family.Adriana Jimenez, 22, who is 16 weeks pregnant and is the mother of a 6-year-old girl, had been on life support since the Aug.23 shooting.In a phone interview, Leonardo Ayala, 37, said his niece was set to hold a gender reveal party as part of her 23rd birthday Sept 11.

He said Adriana’s sister, Maria Fernanda, 24, was in stable condition and still recovering from her injuries at a hospital.Ayala said one of the bullets struck Fernanda in the throat, missing her vocal cords and jugular vein.“The doctor said had it been just a few centimeters back, the bullet would have taken her life,” Ayala said.

He said it has been an especially difficult time for Fernanda, as she and her sister lost their mother 13 years ago to breast cancer.And now, he said, she has lost her young sister.

“She’s heartbroken,” Ayala said.He said the family feels the same and is having a difficult time accepting the loss.“We feel devastated,” he said.“We still can’t believe that this happened.

We don’t want to accept that [Adriana] is not going to be with us.” The Los Angeles Police Department said the shooting occurred last week on the 8300 block of Northgate Avenue.Police said the sisters were sitting inside a black Toyota Camry, parked in an alley outside their apartment, when a gunman walked up and opened fire, striking both women.Ayala said that day, Adriana and her older sister had finished working as cooks at a Thai restaurant around 2 a.m.

and decided to go out with two cousins.Adriana’s boyfriend, who is the father of the unborn baby, was also with the group.He said Adriana was driving and pulled into ...