Mom-Of-3 Killed in Crossfire a Day Before Mother's Day While Driving Daughter to Pick Up Prom Dress | “Wasn’t Her Time”

Trigger Warning: The following contains mentions of gun violence and murder, which may be triggering to some readers.

A car-to-car gunfire between two vehicles on a busy Dallas roadway on May 13 afternoon left a family grieving for a mom-of-three, an innocent bystander, dead. Just one day before Mother's Day, 39-year-old Ana Moreno was driving her high school senior daughter Amy to get her hair done and then pick up her prom outfit. "She was like, ‘Oh we finally get to see her get ready' and she didn’t even get to see it happen," said Michelle Rodriguez, Moreno's youngest of three children, in an interview with NBC 5. As other family members were at their house waiting for Amy to come back home after getting ready for prom, she sent out a tragic message informing them that their mother had been shot. “All she heard was gunshots and she said my mom made a signal like she couldn’t breathe, and then she leaned on Amy’s shoulder and that’s when they crashed, and that’s when Amy said she called the ambulance," Michelle said through tears.

Dallas police officials were alerted to a shooting near the 2100 block of North Masters Drive and Bruton Road at around 4:05 p.m. Gunfire was heard coming from two vehicles traveling east on Bruton Road. Moreno got caught in the crossfire at that point, investigators revealed, per PEOPLE. "I put the shirt on the wound, I lifted her up to see if I could get a response out of her, and I couldn't," claimed Jacob Faz, who was on his way home with his wife when he observed Moreno's daughter in distress and pulled over to provide assistance.

Rodriguez, who had her mother's location saved on her phone, explained that her aunt and other family members hurried to the site, which was not far from their home. Moreno was rushed to the hospital, where they learned her mother had died. "It hurts. It really does hurt, because we all had such a great bond with my mom, and it hurts that we lost her so early," said Rodriguez, about losing her mom the day before Mother's Day. "They took her from us, it’s not fair, she had so much potential, she was so outgoing, she was hard-working, she had everything."

"She would always… like anything you would want in a mom, that was her," Rodriguez told WFAA. "It wasn't her time; it wasn't supposed to be her. And it's over something stupid. How do you do that to someone innocent?"

On May 14, the family performed a balloon release near the disaster scene. People brought balloons in red and gold, Moreno's favorite colors. The family established a GoFundMe account to assist with funeral expenses. "She loved the color red. Anywhere you would see her, she would have her bright red lipstick, her gold jewelry, she loved those colors," said Rodriguez about her mother.

References:

https://people.com/crime/mom-driving-pick-up-daughter-prom-dress-fatally-shot-crossfire/

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/dallas-woman-getting-daughter-ready-for-prom-killed-when-shootout-erupts-between-2-cars-in-east-dallas/3257788/

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/dallas-texas-shooting-pleasant-grove-bruton-road-rd-north-masters-drive-saturday-may-13-2023/287-e2e47e68-744c-4d06-87bd-01646367f396

Cover Image Source: Facebook | Ana Moreno