Andy Lopez, ¡Presente!
Andy Lopez was a 13-year-old kid. He is now dead. The cop was an ex-military weapons expert. He is still alive. Guess who was to blame!
No case like this should ever be forgotten!
Andy Lopez was walking down a street in Sonoma County, CA, near his home on October 22, 2013. He was returning a plastic toy gun to a friend of his. Then he was dead.
The killer was an ex-military weapons expert named Erick Gelhaus. Gelhaus was a cop patrolling in the area, who stopped some 35 feet (35 feet!) behind Lopez, a kid who was carrying a plastic toy gun. Gelhaus yelled at the kid to drop the “weapon.” As Andy Lopez began to turn around to find out who was yelling at him, or even if someone was yelling at him particularly from 35 feet behind him, Gelhaus opened fire. His first shot hit Lopez as he was turning around to see who was yelling at him.
That was the fatal shot, and it came less than a second after Gelhaus had yelled at Andy Lopez from 35 feet away! That was the fatal shot, but it was not enough for Gelhaus. He pumped several more bullets into this innocent kid, including when Lopez was on the ground. Oh, but he “had” to do that to protect himself!
Gelhaus “protected himself” by killing an innocent kid carrying a toy weapon who posed no danger whatsoever to him or anyone else. Then he riddled the corpse with more bullets, for what? To protect himself from the ghost of 13-year old Andy Lopez.
Now, this murder two years ago has resulted in, one, exoneration of Gelhaus of any wrong-doing, and, two, a $3 million settlement for the family of Andy Lopez. Yeah, great. Money for the life of a 13-year-old who had his whole life ahead of him. Until now. And freedom for a cold-blooded murderer.
If anything could be worse than this, it might be the statement by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s department that “kids should not have toy weapons!”
THIS WAS NOT ANDY LOPEZ’S FAULT! The fault was entirely with the cop Gelhaus, who should have been locked up for life well before now!
It was murder plain and simple! Shoot first and ask questions later equals murder.