A mother-of-eight was brutally mu¥dered in Oakland after confronting teenage drug dealers who had allegedly just sold her kids marijuana.
Maria Ramos, 33, was visiting her mother, Blanca Velasco, with her eight children on August 7 when known drug dealers approached two of her children and reportedly sold them marijuana pipes.
Ramos and Velasco then decided to follow the blue Toyota sedan to tell them to stop coming to her house, according to KTVU.
Surveillance footage obtained by the TV station shows the suspects stopping at an intersection. Ramos, who had struggled with substance abuse in the past, got out of the passenger side and began sho0ting at her, with one passenger getting out of the car and firing more sh0ts.
After a few moments, Velasco could also be seen driving the SUV away from the scene.
She recounted how she thought her daughter was just taking cover.
I just saw her taking off and I just heard the bang,’ Velasco told NBC Bay Area.
‘And then I pressed on the gas to put my car in front of their car to shield my daughter,’ she said. ‘I saw my daughter going down, but I thought my daughter was taking cover.’
She told the San Francisco Chronicle she then peered into the back seat of the Toyota, where she saw a teenage boy half leaning out the window pointing a gun toward her.
‘I left my car there, I ran to her. I was holding her in my arms,’ Velasco said.
‘I just saw all the blood coming out and I started rubbing her and I told her, “Breathe. We still need you. You have eight kids that still need you.”
‘She just started breathing from her nose and was going slowly, and that’s when police showed up.’
Oakland police say cops arrived at around 2.30pm and found Ramos suffering from at least one gunshot wound.
They attempted life-saving measures, but Ramos was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers then worked to identify the suspects’ vehicle and were able to bring three suspects, two minors and 19-year-old Isaiah Gomez into custody.
They now believe Ramos was shot by a 16-year-old, who is being held at Alameda County Juvenile Hall, but police are also investigating whether Ramos may have sprayed pepper spray at the suspects before they fired.
Gomez, meanwhile, was detained and questioned by police, but pleaded not guilty during a hearing on Friday, according to the Chronicle.
He has since been released with an ankle monitor.
‘I’m angry cause my daughter’s not coming back home,’ Velasco told KPIX. ‘Why [did] he get to go home?’
She also said she worries that the city’s woke District Attorney Pamela Price will not charge her daughter’s killer as an adult. Price faces a recall election in November over her soft-on-crime policies.
‘If you were big enough to get a gun and kill somebody, you’re big enough to pay the price.’
Velasco is now left caring for her grandchildren, and said she is struggling to tell the youngest ones what happened.
She said the 15, 13 and 11 year olds ‘know that mom is gone’.
Velasco said: ‘The other five, I haven’t had the courage to tell them.’ She said her five-year-old granddaughter is still waiting for her mom to come home.
‘She says, “I her mommy is dead, but she’s still coming back from the hospital, right grandma?”‘ Velasco shared.
‘I would be like, “Yeah,” because I don’t know how to tell her she’s not coming back.
Watch the video bellow..
NEW: Mother of 8 shot and killed in Oakland after confronting ‘teens’ she suspected of selling ‘marijuana vape pens’ to one of her children
“Our plan was to tell them, stop coming to our house”
Maria Ramos, 33, apparently sprayed pepper spray into the back seat of the suspects’… pic.twitter.com/USWamdXwjW
— Unlimited L's (@unlimited_ls) August 18, 2024