Hoosier State Female Killed After Arriving at Incorrect Residence for Cleaning Duties

Law enforcement officials in the state are considering possible criminal charges against a homeowner who reportedly fatally shot a woman when she mistakenly went to the incorrect address where she believed assigned to clean a property.

Officers found Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez, aged 32, deceased early Wednesday morning on the front porch of a residence in Whitestown, a community of about 10,000 residents near Indianapolis.

She was part of a cleaning crew that had gone to the incorrect house, according to police in an official release.

Authorities have not publicly identified the person who fired, but investigators turned over the results from the investigation to the Boone County prosecutor, the local district attorney, on Friday afternoon.

The incident will focus on Indiana’s self-defense statutes, which permit residents to use deadly force to prevent what they reasonably believe is an unlawful intrusion into their home.

But the killing has shocked many. The victim’s spouse, her husband, told WRTV that he was standing with her at the home’s entrance but didn’t realize she had been shot until she fell into his arms, injured. On a fundraising page, her brother mentioned that she was a parent to four children.

Thirty-one states have comparable statutes to Indiana in place, as reported by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In similar cases in other states, prosecutors have filed criminal charges against people who opened fire outside their residences, such as a guilty plea by an 86-year-old man who shot Ralph Yarl when the teen approached his home by mistake. In another state, a man was convicted of second-degree murder for killing a female inside a car who drove down his property in error.

This tragic event highlights ongoing debates surrounding stand-your-ground statutes and how they are applied in real-life scenarios.