The parents of a 17-year-old girl are seeking answers after she was shot and killed while walking home from work in Long Beach last Tuesday night.
Shortly after 8 p.m. on Mar. 26, Ana Morales said her daughter, Brianna Soto, was walking home from work at the McDonalds a mile from their apartment on Lewis Avenue and 11th Street.
Her daughter was on the phone with her for most of the walk and then said she’d call her back.
Morales said that she, her mother, her two small children heard gunshots outside.
“I never imagined that they (the gunshots) were for her,” she said in Spanish.
She tried calling her daughter and a young man answered, but she said she didn’t understand his English. She checked her daughter’s location saw that it said she was outside.
When she ran out, she said she found her daughter lying on the ground bleeding from her head. She didn’t know if she could hold her or if it was going to make her injuries worse.
Brianna Soto was pronounced brain dead at the hospital and died four days later.
Her family said police haven’t found anyone who saw anything, not even the young man who answered her phone that night.
Her father, Pavel Soto, said they don’t know if it was intentional or random, but they want justice because she was a good girl, a good daughter.
Brianna was just months away from graduating Polytech High School. Her parents told NBCLA she was most excited for prom and being able to work full-time.
Just two days after Brianna was shot, a 14-year-old girl was injured in a hit shooting one mile away.
Long Beach Police said the girl was with a group in a stolen car, when one fired a gun, hitting the girl in her lower body. They dropped her off down the street and called 9-1-1.
Brianna’s parents said they heard those gunshots too.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Homicide Detectives Ethan Shear or Chasen Contreras at (562) 570-7244.
Anonymous tips may be submitted through “LA Crime Stoppers” by calling 800-222-TIPS (8477), downloading the “P3 Tips” app to your smartphone (available at the Apple app store or Google Play), or by visiting www.lacrimestoppers.org.
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