House cleaner shot and killed after she showed up at wrong address in Indiana

A house cleaner was shot and killed after arriving at the wrong house in an Indiana subdivision, police said Wednesday. 

The Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department responded to a report of a possible break-in at the home at 6:49 a.m. on Wednesday, according to a statement the agency shared on social media. When they arrived, they found a man and a woman on the home’s front porch. The woman had been shot and was dead by the time police arrived, the department said. The man was uninjured. 

Officers determined that the man and woman were part of a cleaning crew that had mistakenly arrived at the wrong address. The pair did not appear to have entered the home, police said. 

The woman was identified by CBS affiliate WTTV as Maria Florinda Rios Perez, the mother of four children. The man was identified by the outlet as her husband, Mauricio Velazquez. 

Velazquez told the station that the shot that struck Perez came through the home’s door. WTTV reported that a bullet hole could be seen in the door. 

Police did not say who was inside the home at the time. Velazquez told WTTV that he never saw who fired the shot. 

“They should’ve called the police first instead of just shooting out of nowhere like that,” Velazquez told the station through an interpreter.

An investigation is underway and “all individuals involved” in the incident are being interviewed, the department said. Investigators have recovered a firearm, WTTV reported. The department said it was working with the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office “to ensure every aspect of this case is handled with care and diligence.” 

The police asked for the public’s understanding during the investigation. 

“We understand that incidents like this can cause concern and speculation,” the department said. “We respectfully ask the public to place their trust in the investigative process and refrain from sharing unverified information. These cases are often complex and require time to fully understand. Misinformation can be harmful to those involved and to the integrity of the investigation.”

Similar shootings have made headlines in recent years. A 20-year-old woman was shot and killed when she and her friends pulled into the wrong driveway in upstate New York in April 2023. That same month, police responding to a domestic violence call in New Mexico arrived at the wrong house and fatally shot its owner after he came to the door armed. 

Also in April 2023, teenager Ralph Yarl was shot in the head after knocking on the wrong door when picking up his young brother in Kansas City, Missouri. Yarl survived the incident.