She filed for a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend. Hours later, she was dead

A Bellflower mother is dead after Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials say her ex-boyfriend forced his way into her apartment and shot her and her son just hours after she’d filed for a restraining order against him.

The woman’s son, a 26-year-old man, survived the shooting. He told deputies he was in his bedroom when the suspect forced his way into his apartment in the 8500 block of Artesia Boulevard on Tuesday evening. The gunman first went into the son’s bedroom and shot him before heading into his ex-girlfriend’s bedroom, the Sheriff’s Department said in a news release. As the son was escaping from the apartment he heard his mother scream and then a gunshot, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies arrived on the scene around 11:30 p.m. and found the son outside wounded in the hip. They carried the man from the sidewalk to a police vehicle, according to video footage from OnSceneTV, and he was treated by paramedics. While deputies were outside the apartment, they heard another gunshot and rushed inside.

There, authorities found the 54-year-old woman fatally shot in the head and her ex-boyfriend dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot. The wounded son was transported to a hospital and was stable, according to authorities.

The woman was identified as Tamica Gant Lawrence by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner on Thursday.

On Wednesday afternoon, the stucco apartment building remained an active crime scene with part of Artesia Boulevard closed with yellow police tape. Homicide detectives remained on the scene for more than 12 hours after the shooting and declined to comment.

“We didn’t hear anything, just the helicopters,” said a neighbor who declined to give their name. “But it’s sad to hear that someone would do that.”

Neither the shooter nor his victims were identified.

Lawrence had filed paperwork seeking a restraining order earlier in the day at the Whittier Courthouse to protect herself and her son from the suspect, sheriff’s officials said. The shooting remains under investigation.

Anyone with information about the incident can call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500.