Yolanda Major was shot and killed in front of her two-year-old daughter
Yolanda Major, a 27-year-old Belizean-American woman living in Hawthorne, California, was fatally shot on Tuesday, July 2, in front of her baby daughter, 2.
According to reports on Los Angeles’ online media ktla.com, Major drove to the South Hobart Boulevard of Los Angeles to meet a man. Her daughter and a female friend were with her at the time, but remained in the vehicle while she exited the vehicle to talk to the man.
Major was said to be standing next to a Chrysler Sedan about 11:00 p.m. when someone came out of a vehicle, approached her and the man with whom she was speaking and fired several shots at them. Major died at the scene. The man with whom she was meeting was also injured.
Major’s car was also hit by a few bullets. Her daughter was in the back seat of the car, but was spared of any harm.
The motive for the incident is not known at this time, but police believe that the man with whom Major was speaking was the intended target. The police were given a description of the assailant’s vehicle, but did not publicize it.
Major was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Belizean parents, but grew up in Belize City. She attended Queen’s Square Anglican School as a child. She went to live in the United States at the age of 13. The mother of three worked as a nurse in Hawthorne. She had two sons and a daughter, who is the youngest of her children.
Amandala spoke to Major’s father, Joseph Smith, who said that he is preparing to travel to California to bury Major, who is the youngest of his 13 children.
Smith told us that the only details he had on the incident was what has been released by the media so far, but he has been in contact with Major’s mother, who resides in Pennsylvania. She is to travel to California to identify the body.
The grieving father told us that he hasn’t seen his daughter for a few years, but she was a hard-working woman and he doesn’t know her to be someone to be involved in troublesome activity.
Smith told us that Major’s two sons were living with their father, so he is assuming that the two-year-old girl will be taken care of by her father, as well.