Law enforcement is tight-lipped on shooter in house cleaner’s death as investigation continues
Family mourns Maria Florinda Ríos Pérez, shot on a porch in Whitestown
Mauricio Velázquez cries with his daughters, Sayda and Greysi, while holding a picture of his wife, who was shot dead on a porch in Whitestown.
The Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department announced its investigation into the fatal shooting of a house cleaner outside of a Whitestown home earlier this week has been handed to the prosecutor.
Maria Florinda Ríos Pérez de Velasquez, 32, was fatally shot on Nov. 5 after she and her husband, Mauricio Velázquez, arrived at the wrong Boone County address for a cleaning job, according to the Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department. Mauricio Velázquez has insisted they were at the correct address.
The police department submitted the case to the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office for review on Nov. 7. Kent Eastwood, the Boone County Prosecutor, will determine if any charges will be filed against the shooter.
Eastwood said the case file includes recorded statements, digital data, diagrams and measurements. He’s assembled a team to comb through the details and evidence.
“We have to make sure that we listen to every single second of every single taped statement of all of the witnesses,” Eastwood said. “That process is going to take a while.”
Initially, he said, he’d hoped to have a decision by the end of next week, but the process may take longer. The prosecutor’s case review could result in charges, no charges or referral to a grand jury.
Eastwood, who has been a prosecutor for more than 25 years, said the case is complex due to the language of the state’s stand your ground law.
“It might need to be revisited,” he said of the law.
The Boone County Coroner’s Office conducted an autopsy on Nov. 6 and determined that Ríos Pérez died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
Officials have not released the name of the homeowner.
“This is a complex, delicate and evolving case, and it would be both inappropriate and potentially dangerous to disclose that information,” Whitestown Police Chief Scott Rolston said in a news release.
Whitestown attempts to squash rumors and misinformation
The slow release of information has led people to speculate and share misinformation about the homeowner across social media, including suggestions they are tied to law enforcement.
“No officer — whether currently serving, retired, resigned, terminated, or otherwise affiliated with the Whitestown Metropolitan Police Department or any other police department — resides at or has any personal connection to the location of the incident,” Rolston said in a news release. “These inaccurate claims pose a serious safety risk to uninvolved officers and their families and must cease immediately.”
The chief urged people to be patient while the case makes it way through the justice system.
What led up to the shooting of Maria Florinda Ríos Pérez de Velasquez
Just after 6:45 a.m. Nov. 5, police received a 911 call about a suspected home invasion on Maize Lane in The Heritage, a Whitestown subdivision. Officers who arrived at the scene found Ríos Pérez shot dead on the front porch, according to police.
Investigators quickly determined that Ríos Pérez and her husband were not attempting to break into the home. They were instead part of a cleaning crew.
Velázquez told IndyStar that he believed they were at the right address. He said he checked the location of the address twice before approaching the house.
He said they were standing on the front porch searching for the key to the home when the shooting happened.
Ríos Pérez is originally from Quetzaltenango in Guatemala. That’s where she and Velázquez met before moving to Indianapolis. She has four children. The youngest is about to turn 1.
Noe Padilla is a public safety reporter for IndyStar. Contact him at npadilla@indystar.com, follow him on X @1NoePadilla or on Bluesky @noepadilla.bsky.social.
IndyStar reporters Ryan Murphy and Jade Jackson contributed to this article.
