A 61-year-old woman, Venna Satyavathi, from Prakasam district was shot dead on Monday by miscreants in California, US, during a robbery attempt and her nine-month-old granddaughter was kidnapped.
Venna Sivaprasad Reddy, a software engineer working in the US, had recently moved to California from Chicago with his wife Latha and their infant daughter Sravya. As Mr Reddy had asked his mother Satyavathi from Kudumulakunta village in Hanumantunipadu mandal to help with the infant, she had travelled from the US in August and was living with her son.
According to Satyavathi’s husband Konda Reddy, a few African Americans had barged into Mr Reddy’s apartment when Satyavathi was alone with the child and demanded money and gold at gunpoint. When she refused, they snatched the baby and asked Satyavathi to fulfil their demand. However, as Satyavathi tried to contact her son over the phone, the miscreants shot her and escaped with the baby; Satyavathi died on the spot. The baby was still missing, he added. Meanwhile, the police in the US has issued a child abduction alert after Satyavathi’s body was found in the apartment. “Please don’t do any harm to the kid,” said Mr Vasu Velaga, a neighbour.