Identity of Houston teen shot, killed in Los Angeles area released

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Police Department said a 17-year-old from Houston was shot and killed. Her killers are still on the run.

Kristine Carman, visiting her sister in Los Angeles, was shot at the Villa Marine Marketplace Mall in Marina del Rey around 8 p.m. PST Wednesday.
 
She was sitting in a Honda Element along with two other women when an armed man approached the car and there was a confrontation. Carman, sitting in the the back seat was shot in the head. The gunman ran sped away in a gray SUV.
 
The driver of Carman's car drove around the shopping center, stopping near a restaurant where an ambulance met them.
 
Police are working to obtain any possible surveillance video of the shooter.
 
“It could show what suspect looked like, car he driving, license plate so detectives are looking around the area for that information,” LAPD spokesperson Jenny Houser said.
 
Police say the motive is still unknown. However Carman's sister posted a message on Facebook suggesting the killing was part of a botched robbery attempt.
 
“My sister was just murdered in front of me in a robbery gone wrong. There's little room for okay or much less of anything else at this point,” said Carman's sister.
 
Kristine Carman attended Cypress Creek High school in 2014 before transferring to Jersey Village High School, and finally withdrawing from the Cy-Fair School district in April 2015 without graduating according to district officials.
 
For a time she and her sister shared a house in the 11500 block of Colonial Trail in Northwest Houston. A neighbor, Josh Otto, says he didn't know them well, but remembers the young women. Otto expressed sympathy for the family.
 
“It's just, its sad. It's sad you know cause we have these lives to live and you wish everybody would have a prosperous successful life and to hear somebody passes away at such an early age, you know I'm a father and so if that was my child I would be very heart broken,” Otto said.