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An Indiana man has been charged with manslaughter in connection with the fatal shooting of a house cleaner who mistakenly arrived at his front door.
Curt Andersen, 62, shot 32-year-old Maria Florinda Rios Perez De Velasquez through the front door of his home in Whitestown, an Indianapolis suburb, just before 7 a.m. on Nov. 5, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Officers found Velasquez, a Guatemalan immigrant, dead on the porch. Authorities said she was part of a cleaning crew that had gone to the wrong address.
Andersen told investigators he and his wife were asleep when he heard a “commotion” at the door that grew louder. Believing someone was trying to break in, he looked out a window and saw two people at the door.
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He loaded his handgun, returned to the window and saw them “thrusting” at the door. Without announcing himself, he fired a single shot. He said the door was never opened.
When told he had killed someone, Andersen put his head down and said he didn’t mean for anything to happen to anybody, the affidavit states.
Andersen’s wife, Yoshie Andersen, told investigators that her husband fired the shot from the top of the stairs and neither of them went downstairs. He fired the shot and then told her to call 911, she said.
Investigators found a bullet hole in the door but no signs of forced entry on the door, latch or frame.
Velasquez’s husband, Mauricio, told police they had been trying to open the door with keys from their cleaning company for 30 seconds to a minute. They didn’t knock or force entry and heard no voices from inside.
He told media outlets that he didn’t realize she had been shot until she fell back into his arms, bleeding on the porch. On a fundraising page, her brother described Rios as a mother of four children.
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Andersen could face 10 to 30 years in prison if convicted. He remains in the Boone County Jail pending an initial court appearance.
Andersen’s attorney Guy Relford said on X he was disappointed by the charges, arguing his client believed his actions were justified and protected under the state’s stand-your-ground law.
“Mr. Andersen’s actions must be evaluated based on the circumstances as he perceived them,” Relford said in the statement.
Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood said the case doesn’t qualify under Indiana’s stand-your-ground law because Andersen lacked sufficient information to reasonably believe deadly force was necessary.
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Eastwood said the decision to file charges was not difficult and that the state will argue Andersen could not have reasonably believed he was under threat.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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