On the late afternoon of October 15, 2001, gunfire shattered the calm along the 2700 block of Hyans Street in the Westlake area of Los Angeles. Around 5:20 p.m., sixteen-year-old Wendy Cortez was standing outside a friend's apartment building alongside a man seated in a wheelchair. Wendy was nine months pregnant and just two weeks away from her expected due date. As they stood outside, an unidentified man approached them on foot. A brief verbal exchange took place between the pedestrian and the man in the wheelchair before the encounter suddenly turned violent. The assailant pulled a weapon and opened fire directly on both victims.
Witnesses watched in horror as the gunman sprinted to a nearby gray vehicle waiting on the street. He slid into the front passenger seat, and the getaway driver, also described as a Hispanic male, sped away into the surrounding neighborhood traffic. Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division and paramedics from the Los Angeles Fire Department quickly arrived at the bloody scene. Both Wendy Cortez and the man in the wheelchair were critically wounded and rushed by ambulance to a local hospital. While the wounded man was eventually treated and survived his injuries, medical teams faced a desperate emergency in trying to save the teenage mother and her unborn child.
Wendy Cortez was rushed into emergency surgery, where trauma teams delivered her infant son, Nicolas Cortez. Despite the surgical team's frantic efforts, the young mother succumbed to her injuries during the operation, leaving her family devastated. Her newborn son, Nicolas Cortez, an infant Hispanic male, was delivered approximately two weeks prematurely and fighting for his life against severe complications stemming from the traumatic shooting. For nine agonizing days, medical staff tended to the newborn in critical care, but his injuries proved too severe. Little Nicolas died in the hospital on Wednesday, October 24, 2001, just nine days after drawing his first breath.
The Rampart Area Homicide Unit took charge of the investigation into the double slaying. Detectives determined that while the deadly shooting was likely motivated by street gang tensions, Wendy Cortez was not affiliated with any gang and had simply been caught in the crossfire of senseless violence. Her death left behind a grieving family, including her two-year-old son, who was suddenly forced to grow up without his mother or his newborn brother. Investigators worked to canvas the dense Westlake community near Echo Park, seeking anyone who had witnessed the gunman approaching or who recognized the gray getaway car.
In November 2002, a year after the tragedy, Wendy and Nicolas's relatives gathered alongside homicide detectives outside the Rampart Community Police Station to plead for help from the public. Standing before reporters, Wendy's brother Willie Cortez spoke through the family's enduring grief, telling the community that somebody was still out there who committed the crime and begging anyone with information to break their silence. To encourage witnesses to step forward, the Los Angeles City Council approved a twenty-five thousand dollar reward sponsored by Councilman Eric Garcetti for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. Detective Fred Faustino urged community members to come forward, emphasizing that even small tips could prove vital.
More than two decades later, the brutal attack that took the lives of young Wendy Cortez and infant Nicolas Cortez remains entirely unsolved. No suspects have ever been publicly identified, no weapon has been recovered, and no arrests have been made. Detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department continue to ask anyone with information regarding the shooting on Hyans Street to contact the Rampart Area Homicide Unit.
