Texas Woman Killed While Setting Up a Garage Sale

Elizabeth Barraza was raising money for anniversary trip
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 7, 2019 7:04 AM CST
Woman Fatally Shot While Setting Up Garage Sale
The Harris County Sheriff's Office released this photo of the victim.   (HCSO)

"I had to trade our fifth anniversary for her funeral," says the grieving husband of a Texas woman fatally shot while setting up a garage sale to raise extra spending money for an anniversary trip planned for two days later. Police in the Houston suburb of Tomball say 29-year-old Elizabeth Barraza was shot four times at point-blank range in the driveway of her home a little before 7am on Jan. 25, People reports. Police say video from a neighbor's security camera shows somebody who had been driving a dark-colored Nissan Frontier pickup walk up to Barraza and speak to her before opening fire. The video shows the truck pulled up just four minutes after husband Sergio Barraza left for work.

Police say that since it was still dark out, they have not been able to determine from the security footage whether the attacker was male or female. It's also unclear whether the attack was random or targeted. Police say the couple hadn't advertised the garage sale, apart from signs put up earlier that morning, ABC13 reports. Barraza was pronounced dead at Memorial Hermann hospital, where she and her husband were volunteers for a group that works with Make-a-Wish. "It is so sad my wife passed away in the same hospital we did so many hours of volunteering at," Sergio Barraza says. A $20,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest. (More Texas stories.)

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