Family mourning fatal shooting of 19-year-old mother-to-be in Merced. Here’s the latest

A Los Banos mother and her family are grieving after a 19-year-old pregnant woman — who was only two weeks away from having her child — was gunned down in Merced’s Loughborough area Sunday night.

The victim was identified Monday as Tatyanna Lopez, according to Victoria Hogue, Lopez’s mother.

Hogue said her daughter was with her 18-year-old boyfriend Angel Legrande, of Los Banos, at a residence when shots rang out just before 10 p.m. Sunday. Lopez died at the scene, while her boyfriend was taken to a regional trauma center with life-threatening injuries.

As of Monday, Merced police said no suspects had been arrested and the motive is unknown.

Victoria Hogue said she was struggling to find answers Monday morning. Hogue said her daughter’s boyfriend was the father of the unborn child – a baby girl whose name was going to be Ayanna.

Tatyanna lived in Los Banos with her mother. She had been in Merced on Sunday night with her boyfriend, visiting friends for the weekend.

According to Hogue, her daughter had texted her earlier that evening, asking, “What’s for dinner?” She was expecting her daughter to come home.

“All I know is that at this house my daughter was here with her boyfriend, they were visiting the people in this house. And apparently there was some type of shooting that went on, don’t know why or who, but my daughter’s dead,” Hogue said.

Hogue said that she she has not received much information from police. She asked anybody who may have been a witness or has any surveillance footage to come forward and assist police.

“My daughter was only 19, and was about to have her first baby. We painted the nursery, she’s been putting the clothes away — now I have all these baby girl clothes. All I have left of my daughter is a monkey stuffed animal with her baby’s heartbeat in it. That’s all I have left of my daughter,” she said.

Hogue described her daughter Tatyanna as a happy person who generally stayed home and watched Netflix. Her daughter was the oldest of six siblings, who took care of her younger brothers and her sisters.

“She’s very beautiful, she had long dark hair – her face was really soft. And now I won’t be able to touch her face or brush her hair again. Or ever hold her baby. Because somebody took my daughter’s life. We don’t know who, we need to know who, I need answers,” Hogue said.

Hogue said she was in San Jose when she learned what happened. She said a friend of hers who she was sitting next to at the time got a phone call about her daughter’s death.

Hogue said her daughter’s baby shower was supposed to take place this weekend.

Hogue said it’s not fair what happened to her daughter, saying she’d kept her kids shielded and active in sports to keep them away from dangerous people and situations.

“As her mom I feel like I failed her because I couldn’t keep her safe and the statistic I tried to keep her from being she is now,” she said.

Update to Sunday’s shooting

At 9:50 p.m. officers responded to the 1400 block of Conestoga Drive for a report of shots fired, according to a Merced police news release.

Officers found Lopez and her boyfriend both suffering from multiple gunshot wound in the backyard of the duplex where the shooting happened.

On Monday police said Lopez’s boyfriend Angel Legrande was in critical but stable condition. Police said he has not been cooperating with investigators.

Capt. Jay Struble on Monday said investigators were continuing to canvas the neighborhood looking for any video surveillance from nearby residences. Police are asking anyone with video from the area to contact police.

“There may be evidence on those video surveillance that people may not realize is evidence,” Struble said.

Struble said police are also looking to speak with an individual named Enrique Madera Fierros, 29, who may have been at the residence at the time of the homicide. Struble said Fierros is not considered a suspect or a person of interest.

Struble said there appeared to be at least four people at the residence where the shooting happened, who all knew each other.

Police are looking into information that a vehicle may have been heard in the area at the time of the shooting but it is unknown if the shooter was on foot or in a vehicle.

Anyone with information about Sunday’s shooting is asked to call Detective John Pinnegar at 209-388-7712 or email pinnegarj@cityofmerced.org.

Tips are confidential and you can remain anonymous.

This story was originally published April 19, 2021 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Family mourning fatal shooting of 19-year-old mother-to-be in Merced. Here’s the latest."