Friends, Neighbors gather to remember Blanca Rivera

Neighbors tell ABC-7 Blanca Rivera was a hard-working mother who loved her daughter very much.

“I still can’t believe it. I talked to her 10 minutes before she passed away, 10 minutes before she passed away. She picked up my daughter was talking to me holding her and just to think that she’s dead I can’t picture that,” said one of Rivera’s neighbors, Felicia Cheung.

For neighbors, the Thursday night shooting death of Rivera still seems like a bad dream. Some of them witnessed the argument between Rivera and her husband Steve Quinteros Rios moments before police say he fatally shot her.

Next-door neighbor Luis Nunez told ABC-7, “(When they were fighting)They hit the car three times really hard.”

Nunez said neighbors learned about what happened to Rivera was when her 8-year-old daughter came out to talk to police.

“She said, ‘My mom is dead. My mom is dead.’ I couldn’t believe it,” said Nunez.

“She was inside the house. She saw everything,” Cheung told ABC-7.

As they prayed and sang while remembering Rivera, many worried about the young girl she left behind.

“It broke my heart. Even if I don’t really know them…the little girl, I love her,” said Nunez.

Co-workers told ABC-7 Rivera was a full-time soldier working for a Army Reserve unit and she will greatly be missed.