Mother of 3 Shot to Death in Hollywood

A holiday celebration in Hollywood ended in tragedy when a gunman opened fire on a family driving home after a Thanksgiving feast, killing a woman in front of her husband and three children.

The shooting occurred about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, shortly after Rosalba Acosta, 42, took the wheel of her family’s pickup truck for the drive to their home in Arleta, police said.

Los Angeles Police Department Det. Steven Ramirez said the Acostas had spent the evening with longtime friends who live in the 5500 block of Lexington Avenue.

When it came time to leave, Acosta’s husband backed the truck out of a cramped parking space and drove a short distance. Then he asked his wife, who had been sitting in the rear seat with the couple’s 3-year-old son and 22-year-old daughter, to drive, Ramirez said. Their 20-year-old son was in the front passenger seat.

After trading places with her husband, Rosalba Acosta drove less than two blocks onto the 1200 block of North St. Andrews Place, when, without warning, several shots rang out, Ramirez said.

The shots punctured a rear tire and shattered the rear window of the Acostas’ silver Ford F150 truck. The bullet that broke the window passed through the headrest of the driver’s seat and struck Rosalba Acosta in the head. She was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Witnesses described the shots as coming from a dark blue, four-door 1985-89 Honda Accord with neon green side-panel lights. “That kind of car is everywhere, but the lights make it stand out,� Ramirez said.

Police believe there were four or five men in the car. Ramirez said officers think the shooting probably was a case of mistaken identity by gang members. He said the Acostas have no gang ties.

The Acostas’ bloodstained truck sat in a police impound yard Thursday, a lei of brightly colored plastic flowers still hanging from the rear-view mirror and a child’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle doll wedged between two rear seat cushions.

“People that go looking for someone in a truck look at the wheels,� Ramirez said, pointing at the chrome rims of the Acostas’ vehicle. “They don’t see the flowers.�