Andy Lopez Vigil Draws Hundreds in Remembrance, Protest

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Even as new protests of law enforcement violence erupt in Santa Rosa and nationwide, hundreds gathered in Roseland Tuesday for a vigil to remember Andy Lopez on what would have been his 20th birthday.

Lopez was 13 when he was shot and killed in October of 2013 by a Sonoma Sheriff’s deputy who said he mistook the boy’s airsoft rifle for a real one. The officer was never charged in the case. That shooting captured national headlines and roiled Santa Rosa in protest, and today many in the community maintain justice was never served in the case.

Vigil organizers led a minute of silence for Lopez and others who have died at the hands of law enforcement officers, and several speakers urged the crowd to direct their sadness and anger to peaceful protest.