Grieving family and friends placed religious candles at the scene of the fatal shooting that occurred on Saturday, claiming the life of Sonia Yadeli Villegas Cervantes.
The 37-year-old Georgia woman was fatally shot during an armed robbery outside a residence in Jonesboro, Clayton County.
The victim’s sister told local reporters that Cervantes was visiting friends at the mobile home park off Tara Boulevard when a group of men approached them and asked for their cellphones and cash.
“And they hit her, and she fell down and they ended up shooting her,” Maria Cristina Villegas Cervantes said.
The perpetrators took off before police officers arrived at the scene.
One of Cervantes’ friends, Stephanie Cloud, told FOX5 that she met Cervantes soon after the woman moved to Georgia from Mexico and got a job at the Golden Corral in McDonough.
“It’s sad the way it happened. She didn’t deserve that. She was minding her business,” Cloud said adding that Cervantes was a pleasure to work with.
“She didn’t bother anybody,” said Cloud. “She was the life of the party. She would come up to me and you would think I understand Spanish because of the way she would talk to me real fast, but she didn’t bother nobody. It was a shock to all of us.”
Cervantes leaves behind a daughter.
“It’s so devastating not knowing what happened and who did it,” her sister said. “And honestly like why take someone’s life? They had already taken the stuff from the guy sitting next to her Why couldn’t they just leave or at least while she was on the ground just take her phone and leave? You didn’t have to shoot my sister.”
The suspects currently remain at large. Anyone with information in the case is asked to call the police.
