Memorial at Andy Lopez park site dismantled by unknown party

Construction of a public park won’t begin for months at the Santa Rosa-area site where 13-year-old Andy Lopez died in a 2013 deputy-involved shooting.

So why did some person or people recently begin dismantling the makeshift memorial at the site that has served as a tribute to the teen for almost 21 months?

Flowers, plants, vases, photos, a mural, angel statues made of glass and a concrete-molded Virgin Mary were among some of the items removed from the memorial. A large shade tent that covered a 19-foot-long plywood shrine was also taken, its tent poles laid in an orderly pile near the memorial.

“We can’t understand who did it,” said Concepcion Dominguez, a west Santa Rosa resident who described herself as a frequent caretaker of the site.

Dominguez, who used to live near Andy Lopez’s family on the southwestern outskirts of Santa Rosa, said she visits the memorial at lease twice a week to water the plants that some have planted in the vacant lot, which is otherwise dominated by weeds and grass. The county’s Regional Parks department purchased the property last December and is poised to begin later this summer the planning process for design and construction of a park.

“They also ripped out a plant that Andy’s mother planted there on the corner,” Dominguez said, speaking in Spanish. “We’re trying to figure out who did it. We don’t have any idea and we don’t want to speculate.”

Dominguez said that when she and others visited the site last week on Wednesday evening, everything was still intact. Dominguez said she promised Andy’s mother that she would watch over the site.

“It must have happened after that,” she said.

County officials said Monday that the county was not involved the removal. Officials said they do not know who removed the items from the memorial site and they’re working with community members to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo, whose district includes the Moorland neighborhood, called the act a desecration.

“The community’s support of the Lopez family has been remarkable, in particular with their attention and care of the memorial that has stood at the site for months,” Carrillo said in an email.

The empty lot, located at the corner of Moorland and West Robles avenues, has become a gathering ground for Lopez family members, friends and supporters, as well as numerous police misconduct activists.

Lopez was shot Oct. 22, 2013, by Sonoma County Sheriff’s Deputy Erick Gelhaus as the boy walked on the sidewalk of Moorland Avenue carrying an airsoft BB gun that resembled an AK-47. Gelhaus said he thought the gun was real and feared for his safety, shooting the boy as he turned toward the deputy and his partner.

Both Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch and a Sheriff’s Office review concluded that Gelhaus acted within the law when he shot Lopez. The U.S. Justice Department announced last month that the deputy would not face criminal charges in Lopez’s death, ending a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting.

The vacant lot on Moorland and an adjacent site had long been slated for a public park. Calls for a neighborhood park gained momentum in the aftermath of the shooting.

Steve Ehret, a county Regional Parks planning manager, said he does not know who dismantled the shrine.

“We’ve tried to be very respectful to date,” Ehret said. “We’ve tried to let the community use the space while we get the planning process underway.”

Ehret said that the park hasn’t been designed yet and that no one from the county would “just come in and do something like that. We don’t know who would do that.” He said that design of the park would follow a rigorous planning process.

Last month, the Board of Supervisors approved a contract with Mill Valley-based landscape architecture and planning firm RHAA for the design of the park. Ehret said the firm has previous experience designing community parks in “emotionally charged” locations, including a park in East Los Angeles that honors a 14-year-old boy fatally shot by law enforcement officers. The design of the park will be influenced by a series of public meetings that are currently being scheduled, Ehret said.

“We are finalizing the schedule for the public engagement process,” Ehret said.

He said the first public workshop would take place in August and that a full schedule of subsequent public meetings would be ready within two weeks.

“Our intention is to be as respectful as possible to all parties of the community and to have an open dialogue, before any actions or planning or any decisions such as those are made,” he said.

On Monday, a surveyor for BKF Engineers was taking measurements for a topographical survey in lot adjacent to the lot where Lopez died. The surveyor was preparing an assessment of the geography of the lots, including trees and utilities, a precursor to design and planning.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.