Quest for Closure

Juanita Lopez is on a mission no parent would want: finding her son’s killer.

At least once a week, she spends several hours canvassing her Stanton neighborhood and posting fliers with a picture of her 18-year-old son, Bernard Garcia Lopez Jr., who was cut down by a gang member’s bullets on June 30, 1997.

Under his smiling gaze, the fliers read: “Someone murdered our son. Someone knows. Someone saw. Someone will kill again.” The poster asks, “Who Murdered B.J.”--that’s what his family calls him--and requests that anyone with information call Orange County sheriff’s investigators.

The young man’s mother also carries a stack of orange fliers that offer a reward and include a sketch of an unidentified man police believe killed him. She takes care as she climbs onto her car’s hood to staple a flier high on a wooden pole, making it harder for someone to rip off. She punches the stapler with all her might. Every poster counts. Someone from the neighborhood may recognize the killer’s face and come forward.

“I know there are people out there who know something,” said Lopez, 47. “We’re trying to get the message out, but there are some deaf ears. That’s the sad part.”

Lopez has every reason to give up this fight. She said she and her family have been repeatedly intimidated by gang members who she believes know something about her son’s killing. Gangsters have roamed near her house--smirking, taunting and following her, she said, threatening that she will join her son if she does not let up.

Lopez has since moved to another neighborhood and keeps her new residence secret.

And then there are the fliers. After spending hours placing the posters in protective plastic and tacking them up, Lopez returns to the neighborhood to find that several have been ripped in half, crumbled and blowing in the street, or torn off completely.

Authorities say that because of gang members’ code of silence and witnesses’ natural fear of retaliation, gang-related homicides often take a long time to solve. Of 40 slayings believed to have involved gangs last year in Orange County, police have made arrests or issued warrants in only 18, said Douglas Woodsmall, supervisor of the Orange County district attorney’s gang unit.

But Lopez refuses to give up.

“The murderer can’t be allowed to kill again. He has to be accountable for what he did,” she said. “And the people who saw and know what he did and don’t come forward are just as guilty as he is.”

Christine Lopez, unit supervisor of gang victim services within the county’s community service program and no relation to Juanita Lopez, has worked closely with the victim’s family since the killing. She has seen the victim’s mother steadily evolve into a strong voice against violence.

“[Gang members] may have taken B.J.’s life, but they may have birthed a very powerful activist to that community,” she said.

*

Bernard Garcia Lopez Jr. was shot to death outside his home while walking friends to their car. It was 1:35 a.m., in the 7800 block of Joel Street. A gunman came out of the shadows from across the street and shot the young man with a handgun, police said.

Investigators described the killer as a Latino, 17 to 21 years old, about 5 feet, 8 inches, with a heavy build, shaved head and large “jug”-type ears. He was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt, black pants and shoes.

A second person remained in the shadows and watched, authorities said.

Juanita Lopez will never forget that night on her block, where she had lived 20 years without incident.

She heard gunfire. Her nephew rushed inside the house through the kitchen door and said B.J. had been shot. Then B.J., bleeding from his wounds, came inside and staggered toward his mother.

“He came in and collapsed in my arms and said, ‘Momma, hold me,’ ” Lopez recalled. “Then he didn’t speak any words after that. He just kept looking at me.”

She told B.J.’s friends to call 911, but they were too shocked to react.

“I had to put B.J. down and call myself because my husband was going out of his mind,” she said.

As she dialed, Lopez said she heard people outside, apparently gang members, laughing.

“Those are two memories I’ll never forget,” she said. “My son dying in my arms and their laughter.”

*

Lopez initially believed investigators would arrest the killer quickly because they had a composite of the gunman and witnesses.

“When I started seeing the months roll by, then I finally realized I would have to go out there and do something,” she said.

Lopez said she appreciates the hard-working investigators who have stayed in close touch with her, but police concede they have been stumped by a lack of leads or a motive. They say they do not believe the victim had gang ties.

“We don’t have a suspect at this time,” said Orange County Sheriff’s Investigator Dan Stack. “No one has come forward to say they saw anything.”

In the meantime, Juanita Lopez has continued attracting interest in her son’s case.

Stories about the case have run in newspapers and on television newscasts. Recently, she contacted the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” hoping it would air a segment about her son.

In addition to placing fliers, she has asked community organizations for help with increasing the reward, which now stands at almost $3,000. She is selling T-shirts featuring the same information as the posters of her son, and is organizing a breakfast later this month to raise more money.

“We’re everyday people,” she said. “It’s taken a toll on our mental health, our cars, everything, to bring this person to justice.”

It often is difficult for working-class families like the Lopezes to raise awareness and reward money, Christine Lopez said. There are no county funds in place to raise a quick $10,000 reward, and relatives may “feel very hopeless and spend a lot of energy going place to place” for help.

In addition, these survivors are left wondering, “ ‘Will the gang come back again for my whole family?’ There is tremendous anger, and the kind of anger that can move parents into this kind of activism,” she said.

Juanita Lopez, who also has a 22-year-old daughter, visits her son’s grave every day. Sometimes she goes twice a day, because there she feels close to him, she said.

Still, “it’s very sad to see my 18-year-old resting, because he had so much energy and ambition,” she said. “Rest is for the weary, and my son wasn’t weary of life. He was looking forward to it.”

B.J., the family’s only son, was a popular student at Rancho Alamitos High in Garden Grove. He played on the baseball team, was voted “friendliest of his class” and was prince at his senior prom. He planned to become a probation officer and work with children, his mother said.

Juanita Lopez gently runs her fingers over her son’s image wherever it appears, whether on a flier, picture or T-shirt, and remembers a tall, thin man she affectionately called “Fish lips” because he had full lips. She remembers someone who videotaped all of the family celebrations, who always went to the front door to wave goodbye when she went out.

“B.J. filled our lives,” Lopez said. “He wasn’t perfect, but he just never gave any trouble.”

She remains determined to identify his killer.

“It’s a slow process,” she said, “but it can be accomplished with persistence and patience.”

Anyone with information may call Orange County Sheriff’s Investigators David Guest or Dan Stack at (714) 647-7431 or (714) 628-7170.