‘God is taking me to my future’: How the Rihanna shooting suspect’s life unraveled

Ivanna Ortiz loved taking her daughter to the movies. She was religious, preferring Christian musicians to secular ones, and she sang in the church choir. She worked as a speech pathologist and ran her own clinic.

“Everywhere she went, she always put a smile on your face,” said Jennifer Oxendine, who was friends with Ortiz in the late 2000s when they attended the same church. “She always just made you feel like a sense that everything’s going to be okay.”

Now, Ortiz, 36, stands accused of attempting the unthinkable.

In March, police say, Ortiz drove to the Los Angeles home of Rihanna, while the star and her partner, rapper A$AP Rocky, were in an Airstream trailer parked in the driveway. She grabbed a loaded AR-15 rifle and fired at least ten shots at the front gate, according to the police report obtained before it was sealed to the public. When the noise of gunshots stopped, Rihanna told investigators, she opened a curtain to peek outside and saw two bullet holes in the glass, realizing she had been standing in the line of fire and had only been saved by the double-paned windshield. Nobody was injured.

DUTCH/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images

HIGHFIVE/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images

In the six months since her arrest, Ortiz has been in custody in Los Angeles undergoing mental health evaluations to determine if she’s competent to stand trial on charges of attempted murder, assault with a semiautomatic weapon and shooting at an inhabited dwelling or camper. The process has been delayed several times. Ortiz has pleaded not guilty and her lawyer, appointed by the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, did not respond to requests for comment.

In interviews, former friends and relatives painted a picture of a woman whose mental health changed in recent years, after a bad car accident and as she grappled with losing custody of her daughter. Their characterizations of Ortiz are supported by correspondence and legal filings within hundreds of pages of unearthed court documents and police records.

What is certain is that, in the months before the attack, Ortiz appeared to show a growing obsession with Rihanna. A YouTube account appearing to belong to her posted over a hundred videos in which she read from a prayer journal and, in at least three videos, went on tangents about Rihanna, saying in one that she believed the singer wanted to “kill” her. The pop star’s “intrusive” spirit, she said in another video, was obsessed with her and had been stalking her.

Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images

In January, Ortiz sent an email to her ex-husband demanding he “renounce” the singer and “confess that I’m better than her,” court records show. “You gotta let me know so that door can be closed,” Ortiz wrote, according to a copy of the email.

The attack unfolded two months later.

When questioned at the police station, Ortiz only offered one fragment of insight, according to the police report: “I would like to say that I wasn’t attempting murder.”

Ortiz spent her teen years in Florida and, after graduating high school in Orlando in 2007, became a faithful attendee of the Lighthouse Church, a non-denominational church that never had a permanent location but bounced around vacant retail spaces in the cities of Longwood and Sanford.

Ortiz, who went by “Ivy,” pronounced “ee-vee,” loved Christian music artists like TobyMac and Israel Houghton over secular ones, said Aida Rodriguez, Oxendine’s sister, who attended the same church as Ortiz and Oxendine. Rodriguez called her a reliable friend who gave great advice. Ortiz had lofty dreams of becoming a touring Christian singer, Rodriguez said.

From Ivanna Ortiz/Facebook

Ortiz would go on trips with the church’s youth group and sing with the choir every Wednesday and Sunday before services. The services were led by the Lighthouse Church’s senior pastor, Kevin Tuck, a former chaplain and police officer, who delivered fiery sermons in contemporary clothes.

Tuck would go on to enter the US Capitol on January 6. He was arrested and later pleaded guilty to charges of obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder and entering and remaining in a restricted area. Tuck, who also had suspected ties to far-right group the Proud Boys, was among those pardoned in 2025 by President Donald Trump. He declined to comment when reached by phone.

Rodriguez and Ortiz grew close outside of church. When Rodriguez got married in 2010 to a man named James, in a ceremony officiated by Tuck, Ortiz was there.

“She was always positive, always looking at the bright side,” James Rodriguez said. “I want people to know who she was before.”

The friendship faded after the Rodriguezes and Oxendine switched to a different church, but the group stayed connected with Ortiz on social media, where they eventually learned in 2014 that she had given birth to a baby girl.

Motherhood appeared to be a point of pride for Ortiz, who posted photos of herself with her daughter on her Facebook page through the 2010s with adoring captions marking milestones.

But the highs of motherhood were met with the lows of a marriage that was coming apart almost as quickly as it began.

Less than a year and a half after they wed, Ortiz filed for divorce from her now ex-husband Jed Nikko Sangalang in 2015, according to their final divorce judgement.

The divorce was finalized in 2017 and Ortiz was initially awarded the lion’s share of custody. James Rodriguez would sometimes run into Ortiz at the local movie theater where he worked. It was always just the two of them, he recalled, and she appeared to be a doting mom who he believed “truly loved her daughter.”

In her work life, Ortiz was a speech pathologist certified to practice in Florida and California, and she owned the Orlando Speech Clinic, according to public records.

Things seemed to shift for Ortiz around 2021, according to three sources who did not want to be identified, including two family members from whom Ortiz became estranged.

That September, Ortiz was injured when the Mercedes Benz she was driving struck a tree and crashed into the porch of a home in St. Cloud, according to the traffic accident report. She was found to be at fault for the accident but, according to public information officer Andrew Sullivan with the St. Cloud Police Department, she “claimed to have suffered a medical episode just prior to the crash” so was cited for careless driving instead of facing more serious charges.

Ortiz’s family came together to support her in the wake of the crash, with one relative sharing a link to a GoFundMe, which has since been removed, to help Ortiz “get back on her feet.”

In the years that followed, Ortiz was involved in at least two more serious car accidents. After one in 2023, Sangalang said Ortiz’s family told him they believed “she was suffering a mental breakdown,” according to publicly available court documents. In 2024, Ortiz suffered injuries after her car was hit by a bus, according to a lawsuit she filed last year against the bus company.

“It’s so sad. She wasn’t always this way,” Ortiz’s cousin, Jazmin Gonzalez, who is known as “Yahweh Jazmin,” wrote in a statement posted to Facebook after the shooting in March.

“Our family tried to help in all the ways you can.” Attempts to reach Gonzalez, as well as several other members of Ortiz’s immediate family, for further comment were unsuccessful.

Ortiz’s legal troubles also mounted. In 2023, she was arrested for “battery (domestic violence)” after a dispute with Sangalang. She was arrested again months later after violating her probation, arrest records show. It appears the charges were dropped after she agreed to complete a “batterers intervention program,” community service and agreed to stay away from Sangalang and not possess a firearm.

Orange County Corrections Department

The domestic violence arrest helped to spark a tumultuous custody battle, during which Sangalang raised concerns about Ortiz’s use of opioids. He believed she was prescribed them following the 2021 car accident to treat her injuries, saying her legs had been “crushed” in the incident. In a legal response, Ortiz denied his allegations.

Amid the turmoil, Ortiz lost custody of her daughter in 2024. She appealed that ruling, but it was denied two days before Christmas 2025, according to court records.

As of February 16 of this year — less than a month before her arrest — Ortiz was continuing to aggressively fight to regain custody of her daughter, according to the case record. At times, she represented herself in court after several of her lawyers dropped her as a client.

Sangalang did not respond to requests for comment. His former attorney, Hal Roen, said he found Ortiz to be an articulate and well put-together woman during court hearings. Roen never saw any family members join her in court for moral support. She was, he said, usually alone.

Outside of the custody proceedings, Ortiz appeared to be litigious, filing a flurry of small claims suits. At one point, she sought an injunction in an attempt to stop a Billie Eilish concert from happening at the Kia Center in Orlando in 2025, claiming the show would disturb the peace of the neighborhood. It was denied by a judge, public records show.

It was not long after that Ortiz began posting videos to YouTube and Facebook of herself reading religious passages nearly every day leading up to her arrest, with some videos including alarming mentions of Rihanna.

“It almost seemed like she needed help mentally,” Aida Rodriguez said of the videos. After she learned about Ortiz’s arrest, Rodriguez said, “I just felt really, really bad that I guess she didn’t get the help that she needed.”

Judging by the content on Ortiz’s Facebook and YouTube pages, and by the accounts of her friends, she didn’t appear to be a fan of Rihanna’s music — but she did talk about her a lot.

In one video posted in January, she called the Grammy winner “a witch” and in another, “the devil,” whose spirit was “trying to harass me for a few years now.”

She said Rihanna wanted to kill her, then threatened the singer. “Listen Rihanna, when you die, God is taking me to my future,” she said, seated in front of a refrigerator. “You want to kill me? Shut the f**k up.”

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

At some point, Ortiz made her way from Florida to California, telling Sangalang, according to his request for emergency custody of their daughter filed days after her arrest, that she was going out of town on a “‘work’ trip.”

On the morning of March 8, a woman driving a dirty white Tesla pulled up outside Rihanna’s home, according to one witness who spoke to police and was described in a police report as a chef who was reporting for her first day of work and parked outside the residence. The witness recalled seeing the woman smirk at her “as if she was about to do something naughty.” Suddenly, she heard a series of “pops,” she told police, and saw a puff of white smoke come out from the passenger side of the Tesla.

Four bullets hit the trailer where A$AP Rocky was sleeping, according to the police report. Rihanna told police she had been near the front window seat when she heard sounds that resembled something hitting metal. When the noises stopped, she opened the curtains and saw bullet holes in the windshield “directly in front of where she had been standing,” the report states. She grabbed A$AP Rocky out of bed and, he told police, she said, “They shooting at us.” They fled to the home through the garage to check on their children and staff, they told police.

At least six bullets hit the front gate of the home and one bullet hit the exterior wall of a room on the second floor of the home that police described as a “nursery room.”

The chef witness, according to the police report, saw the Tesla drive away. Ortiz, wearing a blonde wig, was arrested in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley without incident not long after, the report said, and a loaded AR-15 covered in a purple blanket was sitting on the passenger floorboard of the white mud-covered Tesla she was driving.

Neither Rihanna nor A$AP Rocky have publicly addressed the incident, and their representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

Ortiz most recently appeared in court earlier this month, wearing a yellow jumpsuit and dark eye makeup, with her hands cuffed behind her back. When interacting with her public defender, she smiled. She’s expected to be in court next on September 29 for another competency hearing.

Ortiz faces up to life in state prison if convicted.

“It’s just so strange that a good person like that can lose herself and get into so much trouble,” Oxendine said.

CNN’s Marshall Cohen, Lizzie Jury, Julie In and Michael Besozzi contributed to this report.

伊万娜·奥尔蒂斯喜欢带女儿去看电影。她信仰虔诚，更喜欢基督教音乐而非世俗音乐，并在教堂唱诗班唱歌。她是一名语言病理学家，经营着自己的诊所。

“无论她走到哪里，总能让人脸上露出笑容，”詹妮弗·奥克森丁说道。她在2000年代末期与奥尔蒂斯是朋友，当时她们在同一间教堂做礼拜。“她总是让你觉得一切都会好起来的。”

现年 36 岁的奥尔蒂斯被指控试图犯下令人难以置信的罪行。

据警方称，今年3月，奥尔蒂斯驾车来到蕾哈娜位于洛杉矶的家中。当时，蕾哈娜和她的伴侣、说唱歌手A$AP Rocky正坐在停在车道上的Airstream拖车里。根据警方在报告封存前获得的记录，奥尔蒂斯拿起一支装满子弹的AR-15步枪，朝大门开了至少十枪。蕾哈娜告诉调查人员，枪声停止后，她拉开窗帘向外望去，看到玻璃上有两个弹孔，这才意识到自己当时正站在枪口前，幸亏有双层玻璃挡风玻璃才得以幸免。所幸无人受伤。

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HIGHFIVE/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty Images

自被捕以来的六个月里，奥尔蒂斯一直被关押在洛杉矶，接受精神健康评估，以确定她是否具备受审能力，她被控犯有谋杀未遂、持半自动武器袭击以及向有人居住的房屋或露营车开枪等罪行。这一程序已被多次推迟。奥尔蒂斯拒不不认罪，她的律师由洛杉矶县公共辩护律师办公室指派，但未回应置评请求。

在采访中，奥尔蒂斯的前朋友和亲属描述了她近年来精神状况的变化，这源于一场严重的车祸以及她失去女儿监护权的困境。他们对奥尔蒂斯的描述得到了数百页新近发现的法庭文件和警方记录中的信件和法律文件的佐证。

可以肯定的是，在袭击发生前的几个月里，奥尔蒂斯似乎对蕾哈娜表现出日益增长的痴迷。一个疑似属于她的YouTube账号发布了一百多个视频，视频中她朗读祈祷日记，并且至少在三个视频中，她大谈蕾哈娜，其中一个视频中她声称自己相信这位歌手想要“杀死”她。在另一个视频中，她还说这位流行歌星的“入侵性”灵魂对她着迷，并且一直在跟踪她。

Ernesto Ruscio/Getty Images

法庭记录显示，今年1月，奥尔蒂斯曾向前夫发送邮件，要求他“与这位歌手断绝关系”，并“承认我比她好”。邮件副本显示，奥尔蒂斯写道：“你得让我知道，这样我们才能彻底断绝关系。”

袭击事件发生在两个月后。

根据警方报告，奥尔蒂斯在警察局接受讯问时只提供了一点信息：“我想说，我当时并没有试图谋杀。”

奥尔蒂斯在佛罗里达州度过了她的青少年时期，2007 年从奥兰多高中毕业后，她成为了灯塔教会的忠实信徒。灯塔教会是一个非宗派教会，从未有过固定的地点，而是在朗伍德和桑福德市的空置零售空间里辗转。

奥尔蒂斯（昵称“艾薇”，发音为“伊薇”）比起世俗歌手，更喜欢托比·麦克和以色列·霍顿这样的基督教音乐人。奥克森丁的妹妹艾达·罗德里格斯说，她和奥尔蒂斯、奥克森丁都在同一间教堂做礼拜。罗德里格斯称奥尔蒂斯是一位可靠的朋友，总能给出很好的建议。罗德里格斯说，奥尔蒂斯曾怀揣着成为巡回演出的基督教歌手的远大梦想。

来自 Ivanna Ortiz/Facebook

奥尔蒂斯会跟随教会的青年团一起旅行，并在每周三和周日礼拜前与唱诗班一起唱歌。礼拜由灯塔教会的主任牧师凯文·塔克主持，他曾是一名牧师和警官，身着现代服装，布道激情澎湃。

1月6日，塔克进入了美国国会大厦。他随后被捕，并承认在骚乱期间妨碍执法以及擅闯禁区。塔克还被怀疑与极右翼组织“骄傲男孩”有关联，他是2025年被唐纳德·特朗普总统赦免的人员之一。记者电话联系到他时，他拒绝置评。

罗德里格斯和奥尔蒂斯在教会之外也变得很亲密。2010年，罗德里格斯与一位名叫詹姆斯的男子结婚，婚礼由塔克主持，奥尔蒂斯也出席了婚礼。

“她总是那么积极乐观，总是看到事物光明的一面，”詹姆斯·罗德里格斯说。“我想让人们了解她以前是什么样的人。”

罗德里格斯一家和奥克森丁转去另一间教堂后，这段友谊逐渐淡化，但该团体仍然通过社交媒体与奥尔蒂斯保持联系，并最终在 2014 年得知她生下了一个女婴。

对于奥尔蒂斯来说，为人母似乎是一件值得骄傲的事情。在 2010 年代，她经常在 Facebook 页面上发布自己和女儿的合照，并配上充满爱意的文字来纪念女儿成长中的重要时刻。

但为人母的喜悦很快就被婚姻破裂的痛苦所取代，这段婚姻几乎和它开始得一样快。

根据最终离婚判决书，奥尔蒂斯与前夫杰德·尼科·桑加朗结婚不到一年半，于 2015 年提出离婚。

两人于2017年正式离婚，奥尔蒂斯最初获得了大部分监护权。詹姆斯·罗德里格斯有时会在他工作的当地电影院遇到奥尔蒂斯。他回忆说，每次都是她们两个人，她看起来是一位慈爱的母亲，他相信她“真心爱着自己的女儿”。

根据公开记录，奥尔蒂斯是一名获得佛罗里达州和加利福尼亚州执业资格的语言病理学家，她拥有奥兰多语言诊所。

据三位不愿透露姓名的消息人士称，奥尔蒂斯的情况似乎在 2021 年左右发生了变化，其中包括奥尔蒂斯疏远的两名家庭成员。

据交通事故报告显示，同年9月，奥尔蒂斯驾驶的奔驰车撞上一棵树后冲进圣克劳德一户人家的门廊，她本人也因此受伤。事故责任认定为奥尔蒂斯，但据圣克劳德警察局公共信息官安德鲁·沙利文称，奥尔蒂斯“声称在车祸发生前突发疾病”，因此仅被控疏忽驾驶，而未面临更严重的指控。

车祸发生后，奥尔蒂斯的家人团结起来支持她，其中一位亲戚分享了一个 GoFundMe 链接（该链接已被删除），旨在帮助奥尔蒂斯“重新站起来”。

在随后的几年里，奥尔蒂斯至少又卷入了两起严重的车祸。根据公开的法庭文件，桑加朗表示，在2023年的一起车祸后，奥尔蒂斯的家人告诉他，他们认为“她当时精神崩溃了”。2024年，奥尔蒂斯的车被一辆巴士撞击，她本人也因此受伤。奥尔蒂斯去年对巴士公司提起了诉讼。

“太令人难过了。她以前不是这样的，”奥尔蒂斯的表妹贾兹敏·冈萨雷斯（又名“耶和华贾兹敏”）在3月份枪击事件发生后在Facebook上发表声明写道。

“我们全家尽一切可能提供帮助。”记者试图联系冈萨雷斯以及奥尔蒂斯的其他几位直系亲属以获取更多评论，但均未成功。

奥尔蒂斯的法律麻烦也接踵而至。2023年，她因与桑加朗发生争执而被控“殴打（家庭暴力）”。逮捕记录显示，几个月后，她因违反缓刑规定再次被捕。后来，她同意完成“施暴者干预计划”、进行社区服务，并承诺远离桑加朗且不得持有枪支，之后这些指控似乎被撤销了。

橙县惩教部门

桑加朗因家庭暴力被捕，引发了一场激烈的监护权争夺战。期间，桑加朗对奥尔蒂斯使用阿片类药物表示担忧。他认为奥尔蒂斯在2021年车祸后被医生开了阿片类药物，用于治疗她的伤势，并称她的双腿在事故中“被压碎”。奥尔蒂斯在法律回应中否认了桑加朗的指控。

在这场动荡中，奥尔蒂斯于 2024 年失去了女儿的监护权。她对该裁决提出上诉，但据法庭记录显示，上诉在 2025 年圣诞节前两天被驳回。

根据案件记录，截至今年2月16日——也就是她被捕前不到一个月——奥尔蒂斯仍在积极争取女儿的监护权。在几位律师放弃代理后，她有时会亲自出庭辩护。

桑加朗没有回应置评请求。他的前律师哈尔·罗恩表示，在庭审过程中，他发现奥尔蒂斯是一位口齿伶俐、举止得体的女性。罗恩从未见过任何家人到庭给予她精神支持。他说，她通常都是独自一人。

除了监护权诉讼之外，奥尔蒂斯似乎还热衷于打官司，提起了一系列小额索赔诉讼。她曾一度申请禁令，试图阻止比莉·艾利什于2025年在奥兰多起亚中心举办演唱会，声称这场演出会扰乱附近居民的安宁。但公开记录显示，法官驳回了她的申请。

不久之后，奥尔蒂斯开始在 YouTube 和 Facebook 上发布视频，几乎每天都在视频中朗读宗教经文，直到她被捕。其中一些视频中还令人担忧地提到了蕾哈娜。

“从视频上看，她似乎需要心理方面的帮助，”艾达·罗德里格斯说道。得知奥尔蒂斯被捕后，罗德里格斯说：“我真的很难过，我觉得她没能得到她需要的帮助。”

从奥尔蒂斯的 Facebook 和 YouTube 页面上的内容，以及她朋友们的说法来看，她似乎不是蕾哈娜音乐的粉丝——但她确实经常谈论蕾哈娜。

在一月份发布的一段视频中，她称这位格莱美奖得主为“女巫”，在另一段视频中，她称其为“魔鬼”，并称其灵魂“几年来一直试图骚扰我”。

她说蕾哈娜想杀了她，然后威胁这位歌手。“听着，蕾哈娜，你死后，上帝会带我去我的未来，”她坐在冰箱前说道。“你想杀了我？闭嘴！”

马里奥·安祖尼/路透社

在某个时候，奥尔蒂斯从佛罗里达州前往加利福尼亚州，并告诉桑加朗，在她被捕几天后，桑加朗向她提出了紧急监护女儿的请求，奥尔蒂斯说她要出城去“出差”。

3月8日上午，一名驾驶着一辆脏兮兮的白色特斯拉的女子停在了蕾哈娜家门外。据一位目击者向警方描述，这名女子是一名厨师，当天是她第一天上班，把车停在了蕾哈娜家门外。目击者回忆说，她看到那名女子对着她露出一个意味深长的笑容，“好像要做什么坏事似的”。随后，她听到一连串“砰砰”的响声，并看到一股白烟从特斯拉的副驾驶座冒了出来。

根据警方报告，四颗子弹击中了A$AP Rocky睡觉的拖车。蕾哈娜告诉警方，当时她正坐在前排靠窗的座位附近，突然听到类似金属撞击的声音。声音停止后，她拉开窗帘，看到挡风玻璃上“正对着她刚才站立的位置”布满了弹孔。她把A$AP Rocky从床上拉起来，A$AP Rocky告诉警方，蕾哈娜当时说：“他们在朝我们开枪。”他们告诉警方，他们随后穿过车库逃回了家，去查看孩子和工作人员的情况。

至少有六颗子弹击中了房屋的前门，还有一颗子弹击中了房屋二楼一间房间的外墙，警方称该房间为“育婴室”。

据警方报告，目击的厨师看到特斯拉驶离现场。报告称，不久之后，戴着金色假发的奥尔蒂斯在圣费尔南多谷的谢尔曼奥克斯社区被捕，过程未发生任何意外。在她驾驶的那辆沾满泥浆的白色特斯拉的副驾驶座地板上，放着一把用紫色毯子盖着的、已上膛的AR-15步枪。

蕾哈娜和A$AP Rocky均未公开回应此事，他们的代表也未回应置评请求。

奥尔蒂斯最近一次出庭是在本月初，当时她身穿黄色连体服，化着浓重的眼妆，双手被铐在背后。在与她的公设辩护律师交谈时，她面带微笑。预计她将于9月29日再次出庭，接受另一次精神能力鉴定听证。

如果罪名成立，奥尔蒂斯将面临终身监禁。

“像她这样善良的人竟然会迷失自我，惹上这么多麻烦，真是太奇怪了，”奥克森丁说。

CNN的马歇尔·科恩、莉齐·朱里、朱莉·因和迈克尔·贝索齐对本报道亦有贡献。