A Lake Worth mother is urging her neighbors to work with police to solve a shooting Tuesday night that injured her 18-year-old daughter.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office responded to G Street and South 9th Avenue. So far deputies have not arrested anyone in the case, or released a suspect description.
More than a dozen bullets hit Daphne Azpiazu’s home. She said several bullets went through her daughter’s bedroom window. She said two bullets grazed the daughter’s neck. The sheriff’s office reported shrapnel or debris injured the teenager.
Paramedics rushed her and Azpiazu, who had fainted, to the hospital. Both are in good shape now.
“The doctor said she’s lucky because these are high-powered weapons, they pierced the wall,” Azpiazu said about her daughter while standing outside her home.
She believes whoever opened fire was trying to hit someone standing on the sidewalk outside her home.
Her family, which includes four children, was caught in the middle. Azpiazu is sick of seeing violence put her neighborhood at risk.
“I’m tired. I know I’m going to get backlash, I know they’re going to come around and threaten me, but I don’t care,” Azpiazu said. “They crossed the line. When you come after my house and my child, you crossed the line.”
Azpiazu is urging the community to step up and help the sheriff’s office solve the case. She fears the next shooting may do more damage than this one.
“This is our community, we have our children. I guess everyone is just waiting until a bullet hits a child and they roll out the casket before they stop it,” she said.
A sheriff spokesperson said bullets also hit a car with a person inside, but that person was not hurt. Investigators have not released an official motive for the shooting, but people in the neighborhood suspect drugs played a role.
Azpiazu has this message to the shooter: “You guys that are going out here shooting, y’all got bothers and sister, y’all got families, y’all got aunties. Bullets don’t have names. You guys need to think twice.”
If you have information about the shooting, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-458-TIPS (8477).
NEW Info: @PBCountySheriff said someone opened fire near S. 9th Ave and G St in Lake Worth. 1 woman hurt, shooter on the loose. @WPTVpic.twitter.com/rVZGF7bxB0
— Charlie Keegan (@CKeeganWPTV) February 15, 2017