Photo: www.theepocktimes.com | Tere Carrión
It is more than four months since Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy Erick Gelhaus put seven bullets into 13-year-old Andy Lopez. The ferment in the county continues—among both Latinos and Anglos.
Led by middle-schoolers, Andys Youth held a spirited march through the streets of Santa Rosa on Presidents Day, when kids were out of school.
And on the evening of February 26, the Justice Coalition for Andy Lopez held a somber, deeply moving novenario through the West Side to the vacant lot where Gelhaus killed him as he walked with a plastic look-alike rifle. The lot has become a memorial park.
As darkness fell, supporters wended their way through the neighborhood with candles lit. The JCAL is holding novenarios every Tuesday evening for nine weeks to call out the residents and acquaint them with the state of affairs.
Meanwhile, the results of the police investigation have been turned over to District Attorney Jill Ravitch—who is keeping them secret and has put off deciding whether or not to indict Gelhaus, saying she needs time to do her own investigation.
Critics point out that she faces a challenger in the June 3 primary election. In 2010, Ravitch was elected with support from the law-enforcement establishment.
An attorney for the Lopez family has reported that for years Gelhaus has been an active weapons instructor in an Arizona training camp, Gunsight Academy, run by an open white suprematist.
Controlling the police in Sonoma County is a major question coming out of the killing. The county supervisors have set up a task force to look into community oversight of the sheriff’s office.
But the sheriff is directly elected, but candidates for sheriff have run uncontested for two decades, chosen by the good-old-boys’ club. The county board of supervisors oversees only the sheriff’s budget, holding “the power of the purse.”
The killing of Andy Lopez in October set off a wave of protests wider and deeper than the sheriff or county officials expected. As it continues, it is educating both the Anglo and the Latino communities about political realities—and about each other.
