On the evening of October 10, 2022, in Phoenix, Arizona, 35-year-old Yenni Dominguez Leyva was tragically killed in a senseless act of violence. She was a Hispanic mother of five who was in the passenger seat of a car with her husband, their children, and another adult when the vehicle was targeted. The family had just picked up a relative and was near 32nd Avenue and McDowell Road when multiple suspects opened fire on their car.
At the moment of the shooting, Yenni was holding her
one-year-old child in her lap. Her husband, who was driving, sped away from the scene and stopped at a gas station to call for help, but it was too late. Yenni Dominguez Leyva was pronounced dead at the scene. One of her other children in the vehicle was grazed by a bullet during the horrific attack.
Phoenix police quickly launched an investigation which led them to a nearby home where they believed the suspects were located. After securing a search warrant, officers detained three individuals. One of the suspects was identified as 19-year-old Martin Ramirez-Contreras, and the other two were juvenile males who have not been publicly named. All three were arrested and are facing multiple felony charges, including second-degree murder and aggravated assault. During questioning, Ramirez-Contreras claimed that he opened fire on the family's vehicle because he thought he had heard gunshots coming from it, an assertion for which police found no supporting evidence.
