Andy Lopez, 13 (Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies in northern California shot and killed 13-year-old Andy Lopez while he walked home from school Tuesday afternoon carrying a toy rifle.
According to Lt. Dennis O’Leary, two deputies on patrol spotted a “male subject” walking in the area carrying what they believed to be a rifle, at which point they called for backup and told him to drop the weapon.
“At some point immediately thereafter, the deputies fired several rounds from their handguns at the subject, striking him several times,” O’Leary said, adding that Lopez fell down and “landed on top of the rifle he was carrying.” But they didn’t stop there. Though Lopez was unresponsive and bleeding out, the officers handcuffed him before administering first aid and calling the paramedics. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooting is being investigated by Santa Rosa police, Petaluma police and the Sonoma County district Attorney’s office.
Based on the police account, which is rather vague, it doesn’t appear as though the officers gave Lopez much of an opportunity to drop the toy gun and it’s still unclear whether Lopez ever pointed the gun at the officers or made any other gestures that may have been perceived as threatening enough to warrant deadly force. It also remains to be seen exactly how many times the deputies shot Lopez. One neighbor told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that he heard police fire seven shots.
Lopez was a popular eighth grader at Cook Middle School in Santa Rosa up until last Friday, when he transferred to Lewis Opportunity School. He played the trumpet in the school band and enjoyed playing basketball. Those who knew him are devastated, grieving and want answers, especially his parents:
Rodrigo Lopez said the last time he saw his son was Tuesday morning before he left for work.
“I told him what I tell him every day,” he said in Spanish, standing in the doorway of his mobile home near Moorland Avenue and Todd Road. “Behave yourself.”
The boy’s mother, Sujey Annel Cruz Cazarez, was grief-stricken in the living room.
“Why did they kill him? Why?” she said.
The Sheriff has called the shooting a “tragedy“. However, there are many young boys and girls out there who have replica or toy guns. Imagine if police responded to all of them the way they did to Andy Lopez, which raises questions about whether or not race played a factor in the decision to shoot.
Replica gun carried by Andy Lopez, 13, when he was shot by Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputies. (AP)
Would the deputies have so quickly assumed it was a real gun had Lopez been white instead of Hispanic? Just a though to ponder.
Andy Lopez Photo: Handout, Courtesy Bridgett Roque (San Francisco Chronicle)
Once again the police murder a child holding a toy gun. Tis not the first time nor will it be the last. Four to five hundred unarmed people are killed every year by the cops here in the U.S.
And this is the way the city and state officials like it. They deliberately hire cops that are known to have low Intelligence and psychopathic tendencies, in order to keep the people frightened.
There’s a hangman in every bureaucrat.
October 23, 2013 at 6:53 pmMy question would be: Were these officers recruited from the ranks of the unemployed veterans back home from killing brown skinned people ‘over there’. Just wondering……
October 23, 2013 at 9:40 pmIt’s a little more than a week before Halloween, and countless shops are selling toy guns to kids right now.
October 23, 2013 at 10:37 pmYou know, Rania, what bugs me is the need to state that Andy Lopez “played the trumpet in the school band and enjoyed playing basketball.” I know it’s good journalism to humanize the subject of a report. However, I think in so doing you (we all) are white-washing Andy, trying to make clear that he wasn’t some thug in a gang, doomed to become a criminal anyway. And I just have to ask: would it have been more right to shoot him if he didn’t play trumpet or basketball? Would it have been more right to shoot him if he had bad grades in school and was seen as a troublemaker? Fact is we have another innocent child shot by the cops.
My critique has parallels to the rape issue. If a woman is “upstanding” and gets raped, it’s a bad thing; if she has questionable dress or behavior, then she provoked the rape. We need to move away from language that makes excuses for a society that condones rape and homicidal police.
On another note, I think it’s a fair issue to ponder what the sale of realistic-looking toy guns is doing to our society and more importantly why these toy guns are created and sold. It wouldn’t be that much of an exercise in conspiracy theory to evaluate how these sales might be designed to perpetrate elite, white patriarchy.
October 24, 2013 at 2:33 amI live near a city that has had a spate of unjustified shootings. It’s clear that the police training is third rate and the absence of a civilian review board means that things are unlikely to get any better. They do protect the Koch brothers, though, and are at their beck and call.
October 24, 2013 at 3:41 amI think you gotta assume thats a real gun, no matter who is carrying it. It looks pretty real. People should not walk around with replica guns these days. That being said, it appears he didn’t point it or raise it at them, so he shouldn’t have been shot at. Still, why tempt already on-edge cops or vigilantes by walking in public with something so realistic? Seems really dangerous.. I guess the poor kid didn’t know any better
October 24, 2013 at 12:43 pmairsoft is pretty popular these days, lots of kids in my neighborhood do it, the firearms look real enough. Some of the kids have real firearms and go shooting/hunting too. If one of our kids were killed, the officer(s) involved certainly wouldn’t be working in this town anymore, and there would be town meetings and all that, focused on reform (and a lawsuit.) The difference is, he we have a pretty well to do community (at least this part of it) who will raise their voice and throw their money around if they don’t like something in the local politics.
Another part of that is(as is pretty common in whiter communities) having a sense of entitlement and enfranchisement. The US system works much better for people who attack what they don’t like, and are willing and are able to throw around a few thousand dollars here and there. You get a whole neighborhood or town like that and they keep the police in check rather easily.
I know that mexican culture is much less confrontation to power. There is a more, “thats just the way it is, better to mind your business and work harder,” approach to things. There is a lot to like about it, but it results in abuse by those with power (real firearms.) I think this attitude is common amongst minorities. I’ve also seen enough to know that, if you are perceived as a minority (not necesarily ethnic) and don’t have this attitude of “whatever,” it is even more likely that you will be singled out and “inconvienenced” for your indescretion. My boys and the kids here don’t think, “what if the cops see me with this, I better not..” the cops here don’t think “that kid has a rifle, better stop him.” (sometimes kids and adults have been questioned on the street, but even that is seen as an insult, and from what I can tell, it seems to do with if the kid(s) looked roudy or from out of town… not what the are carrying.)
It is a real shitty situation, but ultimately, we have a system that favors those who throw weight around. That much isn’t strange, humans are animals in the end. But it is disgusting to try and moralize it or act like there is a particular rightness to it. If you want the police to respect your people, you need to have a bigger say. I’ve no idea how you do that in a situation where the police are there to protect the rest of the city from your people, but being organized seems to be essential.
When I think about it, the worst part is that a community in this situation is essentially in an open air prison. I know a lot of people feel that way these days, america as a prison state. But not everyone is worried about being attacked by the guards. I guess lots are scared of the inmates though 🙂
A real democratic solution, ask that community, what do you want the police to do? Stick to nonviolent submission (tazers?) do not interveine untill AFTER a crime (non prevention) or continue as before and just, “try to be more careful next time?” With no discussion, it is going to be business as usual.
Anyway, sorry and good luck.
October 25, 2013 at 1:01 amIf you allow a nation to arm itself then, paranoia will follow.
October 24, 2013 at 4:12 pmDear George, This nation’s citizens have always been armed and we weren’t paranoid. It’s the government and it’s agents (the police, NSA, etc) who are scared and paranoid now because they know sooner or later the people will know they’ve been screwed over by them and rise up against them. That is, of course, unless the government has already dis-armed all of us so that we’re unable to fight back. In that case, we’re screwed again and will become nothing but slaves to the elite. Keep your arms, keep your freedom and disarm the official thugs!
October 25, 2013 at 5:51 pm“TO PROTECT & SERV”
Trayvon Martin Shot, Killed By Neighborhood Watch – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CcVCoU-elc Cached
Via Global Grind: “17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a Neighborhood Watch captain inside his own gated Orlando, Florida community where he …
Family of black teenager ‘shot dead by Neighborhood Watch …
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2112385
The family of an unarmed black boy shot dead by a Neighourhood Watch man in a gated community are demanding the release of 911 tapes that may shed light on …
Another unarmed black teen shot and killed by a scared white …
raniakhalek.com/…black-teen-shot-and-killed-by-a-scared… Cached
If I had to guess, I would say that 17-year-old Jordan Davis, like most teens, was excited for the weekend on Friday when he and his friends pulled up to a gas …
Man Shoots Black Teen Then Writes Racially Charged Jail …
blacklikemoi.com/2013/10/man-shoots-black-teen-writes… Cached
Man Shoots Black Teen Then Writes Racially Charged Jail Letters; Says Blacks Should Be Shot So They Can Change Their Behavior
THE CERTIFIED & LEGITMIZED ANARCHY GOES ON & ON, forged in the name of “LAW”.
October 24, 2013 at 5:37 pmMost police are good people. It’s a chaotic society that we live in and sometimes police have to make split second decisions. This case definitely needs to be investigated, but how wrong is it for any of us to jump to the conclusion that the police did anything wrong.
People need to watch this and get a real life perspective of what it’s really like to be a police officer having to make a choice like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G1ApUEXcbo
October 25, 2013 at 10:44 amWhat planet do you live on? Police are always kicking people around , killing people , and lying in court. There was no need for those cops to shoot that boy….and they always shoot to kill in this country,never to maim. I once saw five cops in Italy struggle with a knife weilding crazy man until he was subdued into a straight jacket. Here they wouldn’t have bothered…they would have just killed him. I have seen that happen too.
October 25, 2013 at 11:24 amThe deputy claims, Andy Lopez pointed the barrel of the gun in his direction. I wander how the heck he did that. Say the rifle was on Andy’s left side and knowing the the deputies were behind him. Andy looked back to see what the heck was going on after it could have been anyone since the deputy did not identify himself. The boy obviously had to look back, and he was shot because this deputy claims he pointed the barrel of the gun in his direction. Well if that’s true then Andy Lopez had to turn almost all the way around to point the barrel of the gun in the direction of the deputy. Knowing the deputy is behind him, there is know way he could have pointed the barrel of the gun at him. The deputy did not say he turned almost all the way around. Well this is common sense, and hope all truth comes out. Also the deputy can’t justify why he shot 8 times, he overreacted and that was not necessary, so what’s really going on???
November 7, 2013 at 1:38 am