On Thursday, June 10th at about 6:25 pm, Yakima police officers responded to the 1200 block of Cornell Avenue regarding reports of shots fired.
Officers arrived and, in the 1100 block of Cornell Avenue, found 26-year-old Patricia Leija suffering from a gunshot wound to her hip. Leija was standing next to her black, Chevrolet Impala. Officers found 30-year-old Oscar Ricardo Hondal-Lopez in the driver’s seat of the Impala suffering from a gunshot wound to his neck. Officers and paramedics rendered first aid, but Hondal-Lopez died at the scene from his injuries.
Witnesses stated Leija’s Impala was being chased by a white, four-door sedan occupied by four subjects. As both vehicles traveled north near the 1200 block of Cornell Ave, the white sedan passed the Impala and 11 shots were fired into the Impala. The white sedan continued north on Cornell Avenue. Leija’s car left the roadway and crashed into a fence and parked car in the 1100 blk of Cornell Avenue.
Detectives from the Yakima Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit and Gang Unit responded to the scene and gathered several residential security camera videos, which captured the shooting.
Leija was transported to Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital where she was treated and released.
The motive for the shooting remains unclear at this time.
Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact the YPD at (509) 575-6200 or by calling 9-1-1. Tips can be also be reported to Yakima County Crime Stoppers by phone at 1-800-248-9980, on the organization’s website at www.crimestoppersyakco.org, or through the “P3 Tips” app at http://p3intel.com/mobileapp.htm that can be downloaded for free.