FAMILY, FRIENDS GRIEVE FOR POPULAR BOY: HUNDREDS TAKE TO STREETS IN PROTEST; 13-YEAR-OLD KILLED IN DEPUTY SHOOTING REMEMBERED FOR HIS SMILE

Neighborhood kids were just coming home from school Wednesday afternoon when Rodrigo and Sujey Lopez arrived at Moorland and West Robles avenues and slowly walked to the sidewalk where, 24 hours earlier, their 13-year-old son was shot and killed by a Sonoma County sheriff's deputy.

Photos of their son, Andy Lopez, were placed next to bunches of flowers, stuffed animals and balloons. Two crosses formed with glass candles marked the spot where Lopez was brought down by gunfire.

Sujey Lopez dropped to her knees and covered her face in a flood of tears and inconsolable crying. Weakened by hours of grief, the sobbing mother plucked at white roses and held a stuffed animal close to her chest.

"Andy ... Andy," she said, repeating his name over and over. "Andy, mi ni??o. Mi ni??o, por favor."

The scene punctuated a day of grief, disbelief and anger in the working-class neighborhood in southwest Santa Rosa. By evening, those emotions spilled out onto Moorland Avenue, as hundreds of people marched in a candlelight vigil from the DMV office on Corby Avenue to the site where the boy was killed.

Young teens marched with portraits of the boy, chanting, "We want justice" and "Andy Lopez, Andy Lopez."

The march, which was sparked by a Facebook page, "Justice for Andy Lopez," brought out a number of parents who said they wanted to show their support for Andy's family. Many expressed the same worry -- that the same thing could happen to their children.

"I don't know for sure that in the event of an emergency, would the police really help me or jeopardize the safety of my community," said Alma Flores, a mother of three who lives in east Santa Rosa.

"As a mother, it's very painful to imagine that something similar could happen to my 11-year-old son."

The call for "justice" began Wednesday morning, as more people learned that the person who was shot and killed was only 13 years old. Those who knew Andy, a handsome fun-loving boy, expressed disbelief.

Alejandro Cardenas, a Moorland Avenue resident, said he lived next to the Lopez family before they moved to their current home farther south on Moorland near Todd Road. Cardenas, a roofer, had just got off work and was bringing his kids home from school Tuesday when he found his neighborhood entangled in a web of police tape.

"We didn't even know (Andy) was lying out there," said Cardenas, speaking in Spanish.

Lopez's parents, who are originally from the northern Mexican state of Sonora, came to Sonoma County about 20 years ago. Aside from Andy, they have three other children, all of whom were born in the United States.

The family started out in Healdsburg but lived mostly in Santa Rosa.

On Wednesday, friends and family described Lopez as a fun-loving boy with a variety of big dreams, depending on who you asked.

His older brother, Anthony, 17, said Lopez wanted to join the Marines. Luis Diaz, 13, a close friend, said Lopez wanted to become a boxer. Andy's father, Rodrigo, said his son wanted to work for the government.

He played trumpet in the band at Cook Middle School, where he attended classes until this week, and also played saxophone and a little bit of piano at home.

Students and staff at Cook Middle School struggled with news of his death. He was well-known and well-liked on campus, Assistant Principal Linsey Gannon said.

Lopez "was a very popular student, very smart, very capable," Gannon said.

Andy spent seventh grade at Cook and had attended the Sebastopol Road school until Friday. This week, Lopez transferred to Lewis Opportunity School, a small alternative school in the Santa Rosa School District, school officials said.

Grief counselors and therapy dogs were at Cook Middle School on Wednesday morning, part of a crisis intervention plan aimed at helping students and staff, Gannon said.

Evidence of grief and shock was palpable throughout the school.

Some students cried. One collection of students huddled together near the campus flag pole in a large group hug.

Photos of Lopez appeared on an office window. Students taped black-and-white copies of a photo of Andy to their shirts.

Gannon announced Lopez's death in a morning message to the campus. Counselors were available to meet one-on-one with students who wanted to talk about what had happened.

The effort to console grieving students spread across several campuses.

"Our staffs at Cook, Elsie and Lewis have done an amazing job today in light of what happened. Our heart is with the entire community as we work through this tragedy," said Socorro Shiels, superintendent of Santa Rosa City Schools.

School board President Bill Carle asked for a moment of silence at the start of Wednesday night's board meeting.

At noon on Wednesday, family and friends drove over to Santa Rosa City Hall and staged a protest on the steps of the complex.

"They've committed a grave injustice," said mother Sujey Lopez, speaking in Spanish. "They cannot return my boy. We want justice and punishment for those who killed my son and that this not happen to other children."

The family will be speaking with an attorney today, she said. She was reluctant to discuss Tuesday's events in detail.

Shortly after 3 p.m., Lopez's family and friends left City Hall and drove to the scene of the shooting. Students from Cook were arriving at about the same time.

At the sight of Sujey Lopez dropping to her knees, several students began to cry.

Neighborhood residents drove by in cars watching the scene. A school bus turned the corner and children stood up and peered out the bus windows.

Jesenia Dominguez, a Cook eighth-grader who used to have Lopez in her sixth-period English class, recalled a boy who was "full of smiles."

"He would always try to make you laugh when you were down."

Later in the evening, marchers traveled through an area often plagued by gang activity and poverty.

At the memorial, Andy's parents were in the center of a large circle of people in the dry grass of the empty lot. Sometime after a rosary was read for the dead boy, the Lopez family got into an SUV and slowly made its way down Moorland to the family's home. A large group of people followed the SUV on foot.

Staff Writers Mary Callahan, Randi Rossmann and Kerry Benefield contributed to this story. You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.