California mom dies shielding her three children from bullets

Police say a woman who died shielding her three young children from gunfire in a Madera, California parking lot Tuesday was killed by a stalker.

The shooting happened around 2:30 p.m. outside Camarena Healthcare Clinic. 

Madera Police says the woman was there for an appointment.

“This is despicable. I can’t think of anything more horrific than to do something like this,” said Madera Police Chief Dino Lawson. 

Chief Lawson says the suspect followed the victim to her doctor’s appointment and when she was done, she was walking to her car with her three children and he opened fire.

“She was shot once, she ran over to the van and laid over her three children to save them. At that point she sustained two more gunshot wounds,” said Chief Lawson.

Lawson says the attack wasn’t random but a tragic outcome of domestic violence: the suspect was stalking the woman and has a criminal history of domestic violence in Chowchilla.