Mom helping daughter get ready for prom killed in crossfire of shootout, police and family say

A Dallas woman helping her daughter get ready for prom was killed Saturday when she got caught in the crossfire of a shootout between two vehicles, police and her family said.

The shooting Saturday, one day before Mother's Day, unfolded around 4 p.m. in the 2100 block of North Masters Drive, Dallas police said.

People in two vehicles were shooting at each other as they drove eastbound on Bruton Road, and four people were shot: Ana Moreno, 39, was killed, and three male victims were hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said.

Police, who described Moreno as a bystander, said "a bullet entered Moreno’s vehicle and hit her causing her death."

Moreno was driving with her daughter Amy, a senior in high school, to get her hair done and pick up her prom dress, Moreno's family said.

The family learned the stark news when Amy texted the family group chat, Michelle Rodriguez, the youngest of Moreno’s three children, told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.

“All she heard was gunshots, and she said my mom made a signal like she couldn’t breathe, and then she leaned on Amy’s shoulder, and that’s when they crashed, and that’s when Amy said she called the ambulance,” Michelle Rodriguez told the station.

She said her mother was looking forward to celebrating the milestone with her daughter. “She was like, ‘Oh, we finally get to see her get ready,’ and she didn’t even get to see it happen,” Michelle Rodriguez said.

Members of the family who were at Moreno's home waiting to celebrate Amy's prom instead rushed to the shooting scene.

“It hurts, it really does hurt, because we all had such a great bond with my mom, and it hurts that we lost her so early,” Rodriguez said of losing her mom one day before Mother's Day.

“They took her from us. It’s not fair. She had so much potential. She was so outgoing. She was hard-working. She had everything,” she added.

A fundraiser to help the family’s funeral expenses had raised over $5,000 as of Monday.

No suspects are in custody, and the shooting is under investigation.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com