From The Record...
A Clifton mother of three was fatally shot by a man who had pursued a romantic relationship, police and family members said Sunday.Diana Valencia, a dental technician, had told her son that she was going out to eat with her friend Dalmiro Guzman. But early Saturday, police found the pair in an SUV at Lexington and Hamilton avenues in the city. She had been shot twice in the head, authorities said.
Guzman, who turned the gun on himself after allegedly shooting Valencia, 38, has been charged with murder. He is hospitalized in critical condition.
"She gave us everything we needed," said Kenny Valencia, a Clifton High School student who at 17 is the victim's oldest child. "She worked very hard. She was loving and respectful."
Other family members said Sunday that the Colombian native worked hard to support her children and had just started her own dental laboratory business in Passaic.
Speaking on the steps of the family's Costello Place apartment, Kenny Valencia -- who has 11-year-old twin sisters -- said his mother met Guzman at a Colombian festival last year in Hackensack. He said Guzman, 52, promised to buy her gifts and wanted to be more than just friends. His mother refused both offers, he said.
It's kind of telling when the Baristanet Comment counter registers zero in response to a murder in an immigrant family.
Yet, when it's one of our own, the prayers and emotions pour out ( http://www.baristanet.com/2005/12/more_details_on_murder_case.php and http://www.baristanet.com/2007/06/double_murder_suicide_shocks_m.php)
Fear of the Other?