Two teen boys have been arrested in the killing of a woman during a burglary at her home in west Fort Worth last week, police said Tuesday.
Yesenia Gutierrez, 31, was home with her 3-year-old son when she was fatally shot about noon Friday in her apartment in the 4000 block of Calmont Avenue, between Cherry Lane and Las Vegas Trail.
The suspects, who are 13 and 14, were targeting a video-gaming device at the Gutierrez's apartment, thinking it would be an easy "lick," one of them told detectives, according to a police news release.
Their names are not being released since they are juveniles.
Gutierrez died of a gunshot wound to her neck and head, according to the Tarrant County medical examiner's office. Her death was ruled a homicide.
Officers found her lying face-down near the dining room table, clutching a cushion near a broken chair, the news release said.
Gutierrez had fought the suspects after they broke into her apartment, police told the Star-Telegram. Relatives said she was trying to keep the burglars out of the room where her son was sleeping, the newspaper reported.
Her husband had called 911 after arriving home from work and finding her bleeding on the floor.
Earlier, about 11 a.m., Gutierrez had texted her husband to answer his phone, the news release said. When she didn't respond to his texts, he left work early.
A downstairs neighbor told police that she heard "what sounded like a scuffle upstairs," which caused a mirror in her apartment to shake, the news release said. The neighbor then heard "running footsteps" coming down the stairs and saw two people running through the apartment complex.
A maintenance worker also saw two people running from the scene, the news release said.
Detectives continued investigating Friday afternoon and compiled a list of suspected youth gang members who were also suspects in a series of home-invasion robberies in the Las Vegas Trail area.
Later Friday, gang-unit officers detained four people on traffic violations in the 8300 block of Mojave Trail, near Gutierrez's apartment, and found a 9mm handgun, the caliber of which matched the casing found at the crime scene, the news release said.
The person who had the gun, an adult, initially denied knowing anything about the killing, police said. He then told detectives that he had spoken to two juveniles who said they had been walking in the breezeway near where Gutierrez was killed, the news release said.
The next day, detectives located one of the suspects and interviewed him.
The suspect confirmed that he is a gang member, the news release said, and that he had kicked in the door at Gutierrez's apartment. After the two entered the apartment, the suspect said, he demanded Gutierrez's phone, according to police.
Gutierrez gave up the phone, the suspect said, and he walked outside the apartment. The suspect then heard a gunshot inside the apartment, he said, and the two ran from the scene, according to police.
Detectives later interviewed the second suspect, who said the pair had decided to rob Gutierrez's apartment after seeing a video-gaming device through the window, the news release said.