Thread: Aspiring 'Law & Order' Actress Shot

Lyric Benson, an aspiring actress who had bit parts in NBC's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," was shot in the face on Thursday by her former fiancé who then killed himself, reports The Associated Press and The New York Times. The shooting happened while Benson's mother watched. Benson was being kept alive on life support at New York's Bellevue Hospital Center so that her organs could be donated.

A graduate of Yale University, 21-year-old Benson was shot outside her walk-up apartment in Chinatown as she waited for her mother who was visiting from North Carolina to let her in the door. The gunman was identified as Robert J. Ambrosino, 32, a former merchant marine who was working to become a New York City firefighter. While seeking acting parts, Benson worked as a hostess at a popular downtown New York bistro. Most of the acting jobs she got were voiceovers and small roles in soap operas. In addition to bit parts in "Law & Order," Benson appears in a current American Express campaign as an actress working as a waitress. Her smiling face is featured on Tribeca Film Festival billboards now posted in New York City.

The engagement between Benson and Ambrosino ended about two months ago. One of Benson's co-workers, Paloma Nunziata, told The Times, "He wouldn't leave her alone. After a while she didn't pick up the phone. She erased the messages." Early reports indicated Lyric Benson was the daughter of actor Robby Benson, who does have a daughter with the same name of about the same age; however, those reports were mistaken. The murdered woman is not Robby Benson's daughter.

This is so sad. That poor Mother to lose her child that way but to have to witness the murder is horrible.