Community erupts after deputy kills 13-year-old carrying a toy gun
Drum beats and Aztec dancers led hundreds of chanting people on an evening march from the Latino neighborhood of Roseland to the downtown square of Santa Rosa, California, October 30. They demanded justice for the killing of 13-year-old Andy Lopez by sheriff’s deputy Erick Gelhaus.
It was the eighth consecutive day of mourning and action. The killing has ignited the Latino community in California’s wine-rich Sonoma County, supported by many others, as if Andy were their own. Gelhaus, on a routine patrol, pumped seven bullets into Andy’s young body a mere 10 seconds after calling in a “suspicious person” from his squad car.
“Suspicious?” Why? Because he was a brown-skinned youth walking in the neighborhood where he was born? Because he was wearing a “hoodie,” as was African-American teenager Trayvon Martin when he was murdered in Florida? Gelhaus felt Andy was a “threat” — he was carrying a toy rifle to a friend’s house.
A combat veteran of the Iraq War, Gelhaus says he thought the toy gun — a plastic AK-47 replica — was real. But the deputy with him did not fire. “Sheriff Wanted 4 Murder” read signs on fences in Latino neighborhoods and at rallies.
Prayer vigils, a funeral, marches, and rallies have all been attended by hundreds of local residents — Anglo, Black, and Asian, as well as Latino. More than a thousand attended at least two.
“Andy was nice and kind. He tried to make everyone laugh,” a classmate testified at the October 30 rally. “He loved basketball and boxing,” added another from his school.
The day before, the largest march had consisted largely of Latino middle-school, high-school, and junior-college students. They were met at the Sheriff’s Office by deputies in full riot gear, snipers on roofs, and helicopters circling as if in a war zone. No arrests of the peaceful demonstrators occurred.
A spontaneous demonstration of high-school and middle-school students had closed down the Sheriff’s Office a week before. Community leaders are applauding their energy and initiative. “A lot of young Martin Luther Kings are being born today,” observes Alicia Sanchez of KBBF bi-lingual radio.
Most elected officials of both Sonoma County and Santa Rosa have refused to speak out and have even shut their offices and public hearings to constituents wanting to express their concerns. The Santa Rosa School District encouraged students not to go to the Tuesday march, where they could practice their constitutionally-guaranteed rights of free speech and free assembly.
Local police departments are in charge of the investigation — each investigates the other in a killing like this. The FBI has also gotten involved. But many are calling for an independent civilian review board. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recommended one for Sonoma County after a killing in 1999. That has not happened yet.
Gelhaus sees law enforcement as a “contact sport,” according to articles that he wrote for SWAT magazine. “Today is the day you may need to kill someone in order to go home,” he wrote in a 2008 article.
He exemplifies the increasingly militarized police forces in the United States, especially as more veterans return from ugly wars and look for work in the poor economy. He seems to have brought what he learned in the killing fields of Iraq into the streets of Santa Rosa. But who is “the enemy,” and who are the “bad guys” here?
Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch asked for patience in a recent press release. But the public demands more than patience. It continues to mount a non-violent campaign for justice. After the killing of African-American children in the South, Martin Luther King was not patient and did not back off. He came forward with more than patience–with determination and peaceful direct action.
Sonoma County resident Shepherd Bliss teaches college part-time, farms, and is a member of the Veterans Writing Group.
