COCOA -- Police continued searching for a killer who ambushed a 46-year-old mother of three and shot her dead in a friend's driveway.

The shooting happened about 10:50 p.m. Tuesday along the 1200 block of A Street. Police arrived within minutes and found Christy Madison-Sanford dead, still sitting in her car with the driver's door open and the headlights on.

"We have all been interviewing witnesses and canvassing the neighborhood," said Barbara Matthews, spokeswoman for the Cocoa Police Department and one of several detectives who worked on the case through the night. An autopsy is scheduled for today.

Matthews said Madison-Sanford, a Canaveral Groves grandmother studying to be a paramedic, was visiting a friend to pick up an injured Rottweiler mix named Diamond, according to Local 6 News partner Florida Today.

Madison-Sanford, a Brevard Community College student, placed the dog in the passenger seat when someone crept up and fired at least two rounds at close range into her side, officials said.

"I wasn't even in the kitchen and I heard the shots. It sounded like a cannon . . . I looked out and saw a guy running and there she was in the car," said Christine Lindner, who called 9-1-1 moments later to get help for her friend. "It happened too quick, like they were waiting on her."

The puppy was still in the car but was not hurt in the attack.

Police have no motive but think the shooter ran off from the apartment -- located next to a fenced off Endeavour Elementary School -- and then possibly got into a nearby vehicle.

"This is the first thing that's happened like this since I've moved here," said 24-year-old resident Natalie McCarthy, standing on the porch and watching as her 4-year-old son Davyne played in the front yard. "But I'm already looking to move. Supposed they made a mistake and shot my son?"

Family members wondered who would shoot their mother and why. "I just don't think it's a random thing. It just doesn't add up," said 18-year-old Amanda Bauler of her mother's shooting. "We have enemies . . . people that don't care for us, but none that would do something like this."

Between tears, Bauler described her mother as a good person who loved her five dogs. Madison-Sanford also loved to garden and would make freshly plucked fried green tomatoes for Bauler and her two sisters.

"My mom was a hard worker . . . always. She wanted to be a paramedic and was halfway done . . . she was trying so hard to graduate," Bauler said.

She also said her father died in a hit-and-run accident when she was about 4. "Now both my parents have been (killed). I don't know where my sanity lies," she said. "I just want people to tell their moms they love them."

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.