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Murder investigation continues in woman’s death in parking lot
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While two of the suspects in the shooting death of Ashley Waters are in the Alameda County morgue and another – a 14-year-old female – is in custody, the investigation into what transpired in the parking lot of the Manteca Marketplace Sunday night remains ongoing.

While the Manteca Police Department has no additional information to release about the incident at this time, a spokesman for the department confirmed that the incident is still being actively investigated.

Waters, a 23-year-old East Union High graduate, was reportedly in the parking lot waiting for her boyfriend to get off work when a 2007 Toyota Camry pulled up. While police haven’t said what precipitated the shooting, they have told the media that Waters and the group of suspects were not known to each other.

Family members told CBS13 news in Sacramento that Waters the victim of a failed carjacking, but police have not publicly released that information yet.

After Waters was shot, she drove over towards the Planet Fitness location in the same parking lot and entered the building before she collapsed – seeking help. She died shortly thereafter, and friends and family have held a candlelight vigil and impromptu memorial to honor her memory at the site in the days following her death.

While not much is known about the suspects in the shooting, both the driver and passenger in the vehicle that crashed early the following morning in San Leandro were described as black males – the same description given for the two men that reportedly carjacked that same vehicle in Oakland earlier Sunday.

Both men were unconscious by the time that officers arrived at the wrecked vehicle, and they were unable to be freed from the vehicle before it was fully consumed by flames. Once the fire was extinguished and the two bodies were exhumed from the vehicle, investigators found a handgun inside of the driver’s compartment.

Authorities have not commented on the condition of that gun following the fire, and whether it is being ballistically tested to see if it was the gun that shot Waters late the previous night.

The Oakland Police Department is also contributing in the investigation since the incident began with a carjacking Sunday before the suspects drove to Manteca and encountered Waters in the Manteca Marketplace parking lot. The Manteca Police Department is investigating the murder – the city’s fourth this year – while the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office is tasked with investigating the crash early Monday morning in San Leandro that killed two of the suspects.

To contact Bulletin reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.