On January 26, 1996, 11-year-old Wendy Cervantes of Landers, California, was fatally shot during a targeted attack linked to a domestic dispute. The shooter, Martin Mendoza-Garcia, confronted his estranged wife’s family at her brother’s home. As the children were preparing to leave for school, Mendoza-Garcia opened fire on the house and on the car where several children sat. Wendy and her cousins Sandra Resendiz, 13, and Erik Resendiz, 11, were killed; a 7-year-old cousin was wounded but survived.

Deputies arrived as Mendoza-Garcia fired into the car; he was shot and wounded by law enforcement while attempting to flee and was arrested at the scene. The man who drove him there, Jose Soria Delgado, was arrested and charged with murder after investigators determined he had knowledge of Mendoza-Garcia’s plans and facilitated the attack.

What details about the day or the people involved have not been reported that might help explain how this was allowed to escalate to such a deadly outcome?