Woman dies after being shot in car carrying two children, St. Petersburg police say

ST. PETERSBURG — A woman was shot and mortally wounded Tuesday evening in a car targeted by gunfire while two small children sat inside, police say.

K’Mia Simmons, 21, was shot while in the passenger seat of a Volvo sedan, according to St. Petersburg police. Multiple gunshots were fired into the car as the woman, a male driver and two children were riding inside, police said. The children were not harmed.

The woman was not the intended target, said St. Petersburg police spokeswoman Yolanda Fernandez, but the Volvo likely was. She said the shooting was not a result of road rage.

“This is a particularly concerning case because not only was she killed, there were also two small children who were in the car,” Fernandez said during a news conference carried live by WFLA-Ch. 8. “Luckily they were not hurt.”

The incident took place just after 6 p.m. at the intersection of 18th Avenue S and 22nd Street S.

The gunshots that killed the woman came from another vehicle on 18th Avenue S, Fernandez said. She said the shooting happened at a busy intersection in broad daylight.

It was the city’s second fatal shooting of the day, though Fernandez said the two are not believed to be linked.

Earlier in the day, officers responded to a report of a shooting with an injury outside a home on Fargo Street S, which runs south from 11th Avenue S, police said. Dquaz Davis, 19, was taken to a hospital, where he died of his injuries.