Son of Oakland road-rage victim: 'She was everything to me’ 
 
 gallery_thumbnails_photo|photo-7059629|article-gallery-5851073|1 Photo: Courtesy Oakland Police Dept. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close gallery_thumbnails_show|article-gallery-5851073|article-gallery-5851073|0 gallery_overlay_open|article-gallery-5851073|article-gallery-5851073|0 gallery_overlay_open_thumbs|article-gallery-5851073|article-gallery-5851073|0 Image 1 of 1 Perla Avina Photo: Courtesy Oakland Police Dept. Perla Avina Son of Oakland road-rage victim: 'She was everything to me’ 1 / 1 Back to Gallery gallery_thumbs_close|article-gallery-5851073|article-gallery-5851073|0 gallery_overlay_close|article-gallery-5851073|article-gallery-5851073|0 
 
 Luis Lopez Gallegos knows he has to stay strong for his four kids. But, he said, it’s going to take everything he has in the wake of the shooting death of his wife in what police called a road-rage attack in East Oakland. 
 
 Gallegos, 32, and his wife, 30-year-old Perla Avina, were driving south on busy 98th Avenue at about 12:30 p.m. Sunday when someone in a second car apparently grew angry with them and opened fire. 
 
 A bullet smashed through the front windshield of the black 1998 Toyota Camry and struck Avina in the head in the passenger seat, police officials said. 
 
 A horrified Gallegos — who declined Monday to talk in detail about the circumstances of the shooting — drove the car a couple of blocks to the family home on Rossmoor Avenue in the city’s Brookfield Village neighborhood and called police. 
 
 Relatives and officers performed CPR on Avina, but she died at the scene, leaving Gallegos and the couple’s four children — girls ages 1, 5 and 10, and a 14-year-old boy — in shock and confusion. 
 
 The boy, Luis Lopez Avina, said his mother was a “joyful, outgoing, ambitious woman. She was everything to me.” 
 
 He said his little sisters “don't know what’s going on. But my older sister, she’s just trying to hold it down, like me.” 
 
 Gallegos said his wife was “the love of my life. No woman can ever replace her, you know? She gave me four beautiful kids. I wish God would have took me before they took her. I wish I would have gotten shot.” 
 
 Asked if he had anything to say to the gunman, he responded, “No words for him right now.” Gallegos added that “only God knows” what he will do next, but said his children will come first. 
 
 “That's why I’m here,” he said. 
 
 He and his son spoke outside their home, where a makeshift shrine of candles had been placed to honor Avina, whom he had been with for 16 years. 
 
 No suspects have been arrested in the killing, police said. 
 
 Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: henryklee ||||| OAKLAND -- Every other Sunday morning, Luis Lopez Gallegos and his wife Perla Avina would shop for ingredients to prepare her popular posole for the family to enjoy during the Raiders game. 
 
 The tradition ended tragically this past weekend as the couple was returning home from Supermercado Mi Tierra on International Boulevard, about a mile from their East Oakland home. Police say an angry motorist sprayed gunfire into their black 1998 Toyota Camry, hitting 30-year-old Avina in the head as she sat in the front passenger seat. 
 
 Panicked, Gallegos drove the few short blocks to their Brookfield Village home to call for help, but Avina died in their driveway. A medical receptionist, Avina was the mother of four children ages 1 to 14. 
 
 Share condolences Guest book in memory of Perla Avina 
 
 "He was a coward with a gun," 33-year-old Gallegos said with heavy eyes on Monday as he stared at the bullet-riddled Camry in their driveway. "A young guy with a gun who doesn't care about life." 
 
 As of Monday, police continued to hunt for the shooter and were trying to gather a description of the suspect and the suspect's car. 
 
 The shooting happened about 12:30 p.m. as the couple drove in the southbound lanes of 98th Avenue, somewhere between the 400 to 600 blocks, police said. 
 
 Gallegos said details about what led up to the shooting were foggy, but he recalled another motorist not liking the way he drove and subsequent shots fired as the couple's car was moving. When he realized his wife had been shot, he drove the short distance to their house, where authorities later responded and pronounced her dead, police said. 
 
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 "I came to my home because I needed someone to call officers," Gallegos said. A neighbor, Dwayne Jackson, 54, was standing outside across the street from the family's home when Gallegos' Camry sped by him. 
 
 "He pulled up really abrupt, halfway in the driveway and called to me," Jackson said. "He said, 'D, call 911. My wife's been shot.' We pulled her out of the car and I started giving her CPR, but I pretty much knew she was gone." 
 
 Family are mourning the loss of Perla Avina, a wife and mother of four, with candles surrounding her photo in her home in East Oakland, Calif. on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014 after she was shot and killed in an apparent case of road rage while driving to the store with her husband on Sunday afternoon. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group) ( Laura A. Oda ) 
 
 Jackson, who lives across the street, added "For this to take place at noon, when most people are coming home from church, is awful." 
 
 Gallegos, an auto mechanic, stood in his driveway Monday surrounded by friends, co-workers and family who came to grieve. At one point the couple's 4-year-old daughter ran out of the front door of their family's well-kept home, threw her arms around her father's leg, squeezed her eyes shut and said, "I love you, Daddy." 
 
 "She doesn't understand," Gallegos said as he embraced his daughter. "She keeps asking when Mommy is coming home. It still hasn't processed. We had plans to watch the game and (Avina) said 'I'm going to cook you posole.' So we went to the store like we always did." 
 
 Family are mourning the loss of Perla Avina, a wife and mother of four, outside her home in East Oakland, Calif. on Monday, Oct. 27, 2014 after she was shot and killed in an apparent case of road rage while driving to the store with her husband on Sunday afternoon. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group) ( Laura A. Oda ) 
 
 The couple were high-school sweethearts; they met when Avina attended Fremont Senior High School and Gallegos attended Oakland Technical High School, he said. 
 
 Avina, a medical clerk at a pain rehabilitation center in Emeryville, is survived by her husband and her three daughters ages 1, 4 and 8 and her son, 14. 
 
 Police and CrimeStoppers of Oakland are offering up to $30,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest of the shooter. Call Oakland police at 510-238-3821 or Crime Stoppers at 510-777-8572. 
 
 Harry Harris contributed to this report. Contact Natalie Neysa Alund at 510-293-2469. Follow her at Twitter.com/nataliealund. ||||| By Allie Rasmus 
 
 KTVU.com 
 
 The family of a young mother of four who was fatally shot while riding in the passenger seat of her husband's car this weekend desperately asked for the public's help Monday as Oakland police continued the search for suspects. 
 
 Police are calling the homicide a deadly case of road rage. The victim, 30-year-old Perla Avina, was struck by one of the bullets fired at her husband's car Sunday. 
 
 Oakland police have increased the reward for information leading to an arrest to $30,000. Avina's family told KTVU finding her killer is the only thing that will help their family heal. 
 
 Through their inconsolable grief, Avina's parents begged for the public's help. 
 
 "If they know the person who did this, please turn him in. Turn him into the police, please, please, help us," said Herlinda Avina through sobs. She and husband Jose -- Perla's father -- hugged each other on the sofa of the family's living room. 
 
 They know nothing will bring their beloved daughter back, but they are desperate for justice after Perla was killed in the road rage incident. 
 
 Avina and her husband were driving back from the grocery store on Sunday afternoon when the incident occurred. 
 
 Police won't explain exactly what happened on the road, but some sort of confrontation occurred as the couple was driving on 98th Avenue near Edes in Oakland at around noon. 
 
 Someone in another car pulled up alongside the Avinas' black Toyota Camry and fired mulitple rounds into the car. Perla, in the passenger seat, was struck and killed by one of the bullets. 
 
 "This was such a senseless act," said Avina's manager Darlene Cederborg. "This was a beautiful young woman with four young children and there was no reason for it… This never should have happened." 
 
 Cederborg said Avina's work family was in mourning, too. 
 
 Avina started working at a medical clinic in Emeryville eight years ago and worked her way up from front desk receptionist to surgery scheduler. 
 
 "A shining spirit. Always postiive, always had a smile on her face," Cederborg said. 
 
 While she loved her work, Avina's colleagues said her favorite job was being a devoted mom to her four kids. The oldest is 14; the youngest is just 18 months old. 
 
 "One of her sayings was 'The most precious jewels you'll ever have around your neck are your children's arms,'" Cederborg said. 
 
 Oakland police are urging residents and businesses in the 400 to 600 blocks of 98th Avenue to check their surveillance cameras for potential evidence. 
 
 "Your video may have captured the before, during or after, [the incident] which would show the suspect vehicle and the suspects," Oakland Police officer Johnna Watson said. 
 
 Oakland Mayor Jean Quan told KTVU she's instructed police to make the investigation a top priority because of the egregiousness and senselessness of the crime. 
 
 "It means we'll be putting investigators on overtime and really focusing on this murder," Quan said. 
 
 Avina's family has created a Go Fund Me page to help with funeral expenses. 
 
 Oakland police want to remind any potential witnesses to this crime that they can remain anonymous if they come forward.
– Luis Lopez Gallegos says he is now a widower with four children to raise—just because someone didn't like the way he drove. In what police are probing as a road-rage attack, 30-year-old Perla Avina was shot dead Sunday afternoon as the couple was driving to their East Oakland, Calif., home from a supermarket, reports the Oakland Tribune. Gallegos, a mechanic, says that after an altercation, a "young guy with a gun who doesn't care about life" pulled up alongside his car and sprayed it with bullets, killing his wife as she sat in the front passenger seat. "I wish God would have took me before they took her. I wish I would have gotten shot," says Gallegos. The couple's four children are three girls ages 1, 4, and 8, and a 14-year-old boy. The younger children "don't know what's going on," the boy tells the San Francisco Chronicle. "But my older sister, she's just trying to hold it down, like me." A reward of up to $30,000 is being offered for information leading to the shooter. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan tells KTVU that police have been told to make the murder a priority and will be "putting investigators on overtime and really focusing on this."