Maria Fernanda Jimenez was wounded beside her younger sister, Adriana, whose death later led prosecutors to add two murder charges.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Maria Fernanda Jimenez survived being shot while sitting beside her younger sister in a car outside their Canoga Park apartment, but the Aug. 23 attack left Adriana Jimenez and her unborn child dead and transformed a family of two close sisters.
The surviving sister, 24, was struck in the throat area during the shooting, according to her family and published reports. Adriana Jimenez, 22, was shot in the head and declared brain-dead. She remained on life support before her family said it was withdrawn. She had been about 16 weeks pregnant and was already the mother of a 6-year-old girl. The man accused of attacking the group, Walter Francisco Rodriguez Garcia, 30, now faces murder charges tied to the deaths of Jimenez and her unborn child.
Accounts from relatives place the sisters together from the beginning of the night until the moment gunfire erupted. Both worked as cooks at a Thai restaurant and finished at about 2 a.m. They later spent time with two cousins and Adriana Jimenez’s boyfriend, the father of her unborn child. After the group returned home that morning, Adriana drove into an alley near their apartment and waited for another vehicle to be moved so she could park. Maria Fernanda was beside her in the Toyota Camry.
The Los Angeles Police Department said the shooting occurred at about 7:49 a.m. in the 8300 block of Northgate Avenue. Police said a gunman walked up to the car and fired, hitting both sisters. Investigators also allege that the attacker tried to shoot Adriana Jimenez’s boyfriend. The available accounts do not describe a warning that the sisters expected an attack as they waited in the alley. Police arrested Rodriguez Garcia two days later.
Maria Fernanda Jimenez’s wounds were serious but not fatal. Her uncle, Leonardo Ayala, said the bullet that struck her throat narrowly missed critical areas, including her vocal cords and jugular vein. Later reporting said she remained in stable condition and was recovering. Her survival meant that one of the people at the center of the attack lived, while also leaving her to confront the death of a sister whom relatives described as exceptionally close to her.
Their relationship was shaped in part by migration and earlier family loss. Both sisters were from El Salvador. The Los Angeles Times reported that Maria Fernanda had lived in the United States for more than a decade before helping bring Adriana to the country about two years before the shooting. Their mother died of breast cancer roughly 13 years earlier, according to Ayala. The sisters later worked together in Los Angeles, and Adriana was building a life that included her young daughter and another child on the way.
The shooting therefore created two different forms of loss inside the same family. Maria Fernanda survived a wound that relatives said could easily have been fatal, while Adriana’s daughter lost her mother. Ayala told reporters that the child called for Jimenez and cried after the shooting. Relatives were also confronted with medical and funeral expenses and considered whether to send Jimenez’s remains back to El Salvador. A family fundraiser described the financial demands alongside the responsibility of caring for Jimenez’s daughter.
The timing added another layer to the family’s grief. Adriana Jimenez was preparing to turn 23 on Sept. 11. Her relatives had planned to hold a gender reveal for her pregnancy as part of the birthday celebration. Those plans ended with the deaths of Jimenez and her unborn child. What was meant to be a gathering centered on a new baby instead became part of the family’s account of what the shooting had taken from them.
Police have not announced a confirmed motive. Authorities and relatives said Rodriguez Garcia had previously been romantically involved with one of the women in the broader group, identified in reporting as one of Jimenez’s cousins. Family members have disputed suggestions that the attack was gang-related. Their statements have focused instead on the lack of an explanation for why the gunman allegedly targeted people in the car. Investigators have continued working to establish what led to the shooting.
The criminal case also changed as Adriana Jimenez’s condition changed. Rodriguez Garcia was initially charged with three counts of attempted murder, along with allegations that he intentionally and personally discharged a firearm. He pleaded not guilty to those charges. Once Jimenez died, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office amended the complaint and added murder charges for her death and the death of her unborn child. Those accusations remain unproven unless established in court.
The difference between the early charges and the current case is important because the first complaint was filed while Jimenez remained alive on life support. Prosecutors had already indicated that the counts could be upgraded if she died. The later amendment followed that development and shifted the prosecution from an attack in which two sisters were wounded to a case involving allegations that two deaths resulted from the gunfire. Maria Fernanda’s survival remains central to the account of the same event.
Public reporting has established a broad sequence but still leaves important questions unanswered. The sisters returned from a night out, stopped outside their residence and were approached by a gunman. Police identified a suspect, arrested him and referred the case for prosecution. One sister survived. The other died along with her unborn child. What authorities have not publicly supplied is a complete account of what allegedly prompted the shooting or why Adriana Jimenez, her sister and boyfriend became targets.
Maria Fernanda Jimenez’s recovery and the criminal prosecution now move along separate tracks. Her family has described the long-term emotional consequences of surviving an attack that killed her sister, while prosecutors seek to prove their allegations against Rodriguez Garcia. No conviction has been entered, and the motive remains publicly undetermined. For the Jimenez family, the case centers not only on the deaths but also on the sister who survived to live with their absence.
Author note: Last updated October 20, 2026.