PHOENIX — No words can explain the pain Yenni Dominguez-Leyva’s husband and five children feel.
Their beloved wife and mother was shot and killed in front of them early Monday morning.
“She was a great woman, an incredible mother, a really good sister,” the victim’s husband, Alejandro Hernandez, told 12News as he hugged one of his children.
In a blink of an eye, the family the pair had created, was devastated.
Phoenix police got the emergency call around 1 a.m. Officers were dispatched to an unknown trouble call at a gas station at 27th Avenue and McDowell Road.
When they arrived, officers located 35-year-old Dominguez-Leyva, who was suffering from a gunshot wound.
Firefighters treated her, but she died on the scene from her injuries.
“We were picking up my son at his girlfriend’s house, when he was getting in the car I drove off like normal, but we heard gunshots,” Hernandez said. “Unfortunately [my wife] was hit.”
Court documents show that Dominguez-Leyva was sitting in the front passenger seat, with her 1-year-old child seated in her lap, when she was shot near 32nd Avenue and McDowell Road.
“My wife told me that she had been hit, to drive away fast, when we stopped I went to open her door, but she couldn’t hold on anymore,” the husband said.
Police said witnesses saw a group of men in front of a home in a nearby neighborhood when the shooting occurred, and they believed the suspects went back inside the home after the shooting.
Officers went to the home and tried to communicate with the people inside. After no response, the detective secured a warrant to enter the home, where they detained two adult males and two juvenile males.
Investigators arrested 19-year-old Martin Ramirez Contreras and two teens whose names are not released because of their age.
According to arresting documents, Ramirez told investigators he shot at the vehicle after he reported hearing a gunshot coming from the car, but that they hadn’t seen it.
The three suspects also told police they’d been robbed earlier in September and had been getting threatening calls from the alleged thief who said they were going to go to their house.
When they saw the car in front of their home, they believed it was the caller who was at their house, court records said.
Documents said investigators also found bullet holes at nearby Fire Station 14, but no one was hurt.
Ramirez is facing multiple felonies, including second-degree murder and aggravated assault.
Now a family is left heartbroken, and five children are without their mom.
“We miss you. We need you here,” said the victim’s cousin, Anayeli Mora. “Your kids need you, your husband, everyone.”
Dominguez-Leyva is remembered as a loving person who always cared for others.
“You could have a bad day and in a second she would lift you up,” Hernandez said.
The family has set up a GoFundMe account to help with funeral expenses, you can help by donating here.
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