Angelis Molina traveled to Puerto Rico on Jan. 16 to celebrate her 20th birthday and attend the San Sebastian Festival in Old San Juan. In the two weeks she had been there, she was offered a modeling job, pursuing a bartending position and started getting over a broken heart.

Now, the aspiring model is fighting for her life after being shot in the face, leaving her with a glass eye and shattered cheekbone.

The Mays Landing woman was shot on Jan. 31 in Condado, on the outskirts of San Juan, officials said. She remains in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Centro Americo hospital and is recovering from her most recent surgery, which included replacing her eyeball with a glass eye, said her mother, Michelle.

The woman traveled to Puerto Rico in mid-January to celebrate her 20th birthday, her mother said.

And in the eight days since the waitress from Atlantic City was shot, the circumstances surrounding the shooting remain unclear, while stories and leads keep changing.

Originally, the shooting was reported as a robbery, Puerto Rican authorities said. But, for reasons they could not divulge, it became clear it was not a robbery, they said.

And according to local media, a man who was with Molina the night she was shot is now a suspect in the shooting. He had told officials they were running away from three people who intended to jump them when they shot at her, but he’s changed his story several times, Telemundo reported.

The murky details of the shooting, which is under investigation by Agentes del Cuerpo de Investigaciones Criminales de San Juan, is making it harder for her mother to process, she said. She believes it was a personal attack.

She begged her 20-year-old daughter not to plan a trip to San Juan, where crime and looting is prevalent as the island is still recovering from the the devastation of Hurricane Maria.

“She’s just adventurous. She’d go anywhere and do anything,” she said. “I begged her to go anywhere else, but she said no.”

Molina went to Puerto Rico after a recent break-up, telling her mom that she wanted to experience life a little more.

“I’m broken inside and hurt. When someone hurts your baby, as sweet as she is, I never thought anyone would want to cause her any harm,” she said while crying.

The family is taking things day by day while Angelis recovers from her eye surgery in the intensive care unit, she said.

Angelis Molina, a 20-year-old from Mays Landing, was shot in the face while vacationing in Puerto Rico. Courtesy

Molina was originally supposed to be down there for a few days, but after missing her flight, decided she would stay until April, her mother said.

Although Michelle Molina was apprehensive to let her stay, she didn’t want to take happiness away from her daughter, she said.

“I didn’t want to make her come back. For the first time in three months she was happy. She’s 20-years-old now, how can I make her do something she doesn’t want to do?” Michelle Molina said.

She said her daughter got tangled up with the wrong crowd, and was “nowhere near the kind of kids she usually would be.”

“How she ended up around the likes of people she did, it tortures me. I’m confused. It’s very confusing, because she was just enjoying herself,” she added.

Friends from high school organized a GoFundMe for her medical expenses and to bring the woman back to N.J. As of Friday afternoon, $2,865 had been raised.

“She’s the nicest human being I’ve ever met in my whole life,” said one of the organizers, Jaclynn Perry. “She’s been there for me through my toughest times and I want to thank her as much as possible.”

Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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