Woman, 23, Shot Dead by Robber

CANOGA PARK — A 23-year-old Canoga Park woman out on an errand Monday afternoon was shot to death at point-blank range, apparently by a robber, Los Angeles police said.

Michele Dawn Smith was walking in the 21400 block of Saticoy Street when a man walked up to her and shot her in the chest, Los Angeles Police Detective Rick Swanston said. The gunman then slowly walked away, cutting through a gas station on the corner and breaking into a slow jog up Canoga Avenue.

Smith died at the scene.

Swanston said Smith’s purse strap was torn, indicating a robbery attempt, although witnesses did not see what took place between her and the gunman. “Nothing is sacred,” he said.

Neighbors described the dead woman as a hard-working single mother of a boy about 3 years old. A clerk at Mervyn’s in West Hills, she also took classes at Pierce College. The child was in the custody of grandparents.

Smith was on her way to buy a pack of cigarettes from a corner gas station when she was shot, they said.

By nightfall, a makeshift memorial to the slain woman had appeared at the crime scene, with flowers and pictures of the victim.

“She was a single parent who never hurt anyone, who walked down the street and got shot,” said Tiffany Gonzalez, 26, a friend and neighbor.