"She had seen her daddy in blood": Woman makes plea for justice after Manteca freeway shooting
MANTECA — A mother is making a tearful plea for justice in a deadly Manteca freeway shooting.
Amber Herrera's three-year-old daughter witnessed her father's killing while the little girl was inside his vehicle, riding in her car seat.
"She's traumatized," Herrera said. "She's really like, she knows what's going on. She said that she had seen her daddy in blood, 'my daddy had blood everywhere.' "
Incredibly, her three-year-old daughter Hayley was not physically hurt when their vehicle crashed down an embankment.
Herrera says her little girl has described the moments after the shooting.
"She did get out of her seat. She realized her dad wasn't talking to her, [she] got out of her seat, and when they had gotten there on scene, she was shaking him to tell him, 'daddy please wake up, daddy wake up please,' " Herrera said.
Hayley's father Carlos Ortiz was driving his daughter to school Tuesday morning on Highway 120 near Interstate 5 when he was shot once in the leg.
First responders performed CPR at the scene and could not save him.
"She said, 'the fire marshall took my daddy, and my daddy died,' " Herrera said.
California Highway Patrol investigators are looking at Caltrans camera freeway footage to try and locate a suspect vehicle.
Herrera is asking for the public's help to identify any tips that could help catch the killer.
"I hope they come forward, get my daughter the justice that she needs because she's never going to get her dad back," she said. "And as a three-year-old, as anybody, nobody should have to watch their family member take their last breath."
Right now, investigators have released no motive in this freeway shooting.
Herrera says Ortiz was an employee at Tesla and that he leaves behind three children, including little Hayley.