Pregnant Sunland Teacher Accidentally Stumbled Onto Drug Deal When She Was Stabbed, Police Say
PACOIMA (CBSLA) – Several gang members involved in stabbing and carjacking a pregnant first-grade teacher in Sunland last week did so because she accidentally stumbled onto them conducting a drug deal, authorities announced Wednesday.
Three men and two women are facing charges of attempted murder, carjacking, robbery, hit-and-run and gang enhancements in the brutal March 20 attack on 33-year-old Tanya Nguyen.
Nguyen is recovering and her baby is expected to be OK.
"They were here, we believe, to purchase narcotics, and this lady just happened to be coming home at the wrong time when they were there," Los Angeles police Det. Armando Acero told reporters Wednesday at a news conference in Pacoima.
The attack happened just after 6 p.m. in the 10800 block of Eldora Avenue, as the woman was coming home for the day, police said.
The three male suspects surrounded Nguyen's car as she was parked along the curb outside her home, asked to borrow her cell phone, and then stabbed and punched her numerous times as she was sitting in the driver's seat, police said.
"And they noticed that she was alone, the three main suspects at the time surrounded the vehicle, and she was vulnerable," Acero said.
They then dragged her out of her car and two of the men jumped in and tried to speed away, police said. However, they slammed into several parked cars on Eldora. Surveillance video captured footage of the crash and the two suspects jumping into a getaway car, a white Volkswagen Jetta being driven by the third suspect, as neighbors tried to chase them down.
Nguyen, who was 12 weeks pregnant, was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Her husband said she was stabbed 10 times.
"She's got 10 punctures from stabbing, one of which went all the way through the nose," her husband, Greg Maga, told CBS2. "Because she's pregnant, she tried to protect herself from the stabbing, she used her hand, so she has a lot of stabs on her hand."
Nguyen was discharged from the hospital over the weekend and is recovering at home.
"Thank you so much for all your love and support," she said in a video posted to YouTube. "I'm completely overwhelmed by it, and very grateful for all your support and being there for me at this time. I'm gonna get through this. I promise."
Based on witness statements and security video, police identified and arrested two of the suspects within six hours of the attack in the 1400 block of Tremont Avenue in the Boston Heights area near LAC+USC Medical Center. They arrested the other three on March 22 at Murchison Street and Lancaster Avenue, also in Boston Heights.
On March 23, detectives raided a known gang residence in the 1400 block of Tremont Avenue, where they found items which had been stolen from Nguyen.
The suspects have been identified as Jesus Morales, 18, Andrew Bran, 19, Christian Reyes, 20, Christina Luna, 24, and Monica Gomez, 25.
