It was supposed to be a time of celebration for Melquiesha Warren. The recent college graduate was at a nightclub in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, celebrating her wife's 28th birthday just days before she would turn 24.

But a fender bender outside the club early Sunday led to a confrontation and then gunfire. When it was over, Warren was dead and a friend was critically wounded.

Now, friends and family are planning for Warren's funeral.

"I'm just flabbergasted. It was just an accident," Warren's wife, TiffanyRenee Warren, said Monday. "She lost her life. An innocent life was taken over an accident."

Melquiesha Warren, who went by "Mel," was out with friends and her wife, celebrating TiffanyRenee Warren's birthday at Club OMG! on Sixth Street.

After leaving the club about 2 a.m., Melquiesha Warren and a friend, 21-year-old Danisha Bean of Hayward, were sitting in Bean's car in a parking lot at Sixth and Jessie streets when a car with two people inside backed into their vehicle, TiffanyRenee Warren and police said.

Bean's front fender fell off, and Melquiesha Warren got out of the car to inspect the damage. Words were exchanged, and someone pushed her, TiffanyRenee Warren said. Someone also tried to force Bean out of her car, but Bean had her seat belt on.

That's when a man who had been in the car that hit the women "just opened fire," TiffanyRenee Warren said.

Melquiesha Warren was shot in the head, and Bean was struck in her side.

The two were taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where Warren died, six days short of her birthday. Bean was being treated for life-threatening injuries, said Officer Gordon Shyy, a police spokesman.

The assailants drove away east on Jessie, but one of the attackers fled on foot in an unknown direction, police said. No arrests have been made.

Melquiesha Warren graduated in 2012 from Cal State Sacramento, where she majored in criminal justice and minored in philosophy. She grew up in Oakland and attended Tennyson High School in Hayward, where she played on the basketball team.

She was a licensed security guard, but wanted to teach basketball to children and hoped to work with troubled youths at the Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center in San Leandro, relatives said. She loved music and taking photos.

"She was the most loving, compassionate, kindhearted person that you would ever meet, with the biggest smile ever," her wife said. The couple had been together for five years.

She said she had a message for whoever was responsible: "You reap what you sow, and, I hope, I pray to God that he has mercy on him, I really do, because he took an innocent life from us."

The victim's aunt, Sil Warren, 40, of San Leandro said, "She will definitely, truly be missed. She was a bright young lady."