Maria Hicks lived in her quiet Pico Rivera neighborhood her whole life -- two houses down from her mother, and across the street from her daughter and three grandchildren.
She believed in keeping up the neighborhood, and few things bothered her more than newly scrawled graffiti.
On Friday night, police said, Hicks, 57, was driving home from visiting her sister in Whittier when she noticed a teenager spraying graffiti on a cinder-block wall two blocks from her house near San Gabriel River Parkway and Woodford Street.
Hicks honked her horn and flashed her lights at the teenager. As he walked away, she followed him in her car. Suddenly, another car pulled up behind her and someone fired several rounds through Hicks' rear windshield. She was struck in the back of the head and died Monday at a local hospital.
"You think about it, and my mom died over a can of spray paint," said Hicks' daughter, Melinda Wall, 34. "She was not one to hold her tongue. She felt strongly about keeping your community nice."
Sheriff's detectives arrested three people Wednesday in connection with Hicks' slaying, which has touched a nerve in Pico Rivera and beyond. Residents took part in a community candlelight vigil Wednesday night, and her death has sparked discussions in communities around Southern California dealing with a rise in graffiti and other gang-related vandalism.
"There is nowhere I can go -- be it the bank, grocery store or restaurants -- where our residents are not completely outraged," Pico Rivera Mayor Ron Beilke said. "In my mind, she's a hero. She was fed up with it; she was fed up with seeing graffiti on a daily basis."
Police and community officials said graffiti removal crews are struggling to keep up with the vandals. In the city of Los Angeles, cleanup crews removed 27 million square feet of graffiti last year, up from 21 million square feet in 2005. In other areas of Los Angeles County, 13 million square feet of walls and other surfaces were cleaned, 4 million more than in the previous year.
Freeway graffiti has surged in the last few months, prompting Los Angeles prosecutors, the California Department of Transportation and the California Highway Patrol to join forces for a special enforcement operation in which officers work undercover at popular tagging spots.
In many ways, Hicks' neighborhood in Pico Rivera, a suburb of 63,000 about 14 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, is a microcosm of the battle.
