Stalker Kills Marietta Woman

The AJC reports that a 32-year-old Marietta woman was fatally shot Tuesday outside the supermarket where she worked, killed by a man who had been stalking her for months, police said.

Police arrested the suspect, Armando Soto, 46, early Wednesday in Mississippi. He has been charged with felony murder and aggravated assault and is being held in the Pascagoula, Miss., jail.

At 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, police say, Soto confronted Angelica Robledo De La Rosa and her companion outside the Brito Supermarket on South Cobb Drive in Smyrna. Soto shot De La Rosa several times as she got out of a vehicle, police said.

Soto then crashed his white van into another vehicle before fleeing, police said.

Investigators soon learned Soto had repeatedly tried to "pursue a relationship with the victim, however she continually denied his requests," police spokesman Officer Joe Hernandez said. "A series of disturbing [stalking] incidents" followed, Hernandez said, but they were not reported to police.

A lookout was sent to law enforcement agencies Tuesday. Police in Gautier, Miss., pulled over Soto in his white van early Wednesday.

De La Rosa, who worked in the grocery store as a cashier, died of her wounds Tuesday night at WellStar Kennestone Hospital.

Tragedies like these underscore very clearly why we take stalking seriously. It's not a compliment and it's not a way to wear a woman down until she finally says yes to a date. Stalking is a crime, it is threatening and scary, and it should never be treated as a joke. We're just sorry that it takes the death of an innocent woman to prove that.