Andy Lopez mural in Roseland removes deputy, gets new panel

A Santa Rosa mural memorializing the shooting death of 13-year-old Andy Lopez got a partial face-lift Tuesday morning when the creator of the mural replaced a panel that reportedly offended the Lopez family.

That panel, one of 12 comprising the mural at the site of the planned Roseland Village urban renewal project, depicted a female Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputy kneeling next to a small girl holding a paintbrush. The panel was supposed to depict the “healing” that’s taken place since the 2013 shooting and its traumatic aftermath, said Santa Rosa artist Mario Uribe, who created the mural.

But supporters of the Lopez family say the panel does not reflect reality and no such healing has taken place.

“For me it was very painful. It was like a joke that they would put a sheriff’s deputy there,” said Concepcion Dominguez, a longtime resident of southwest Santa Rosa’s Moorland Avenue neighborhood, where the shooting took place.

Dominguez, who said she’s known the Lopez family for many years and is still in contact with them, was among those who protested the panel in question.

The mural - more than 48 feet long and located in the northeast corner of the concrete pad of the razed Albertsons grocery store - depicts strong and colorful images of Mexican-American culture and day-to-day life, combined with the iconic image of Lopez, who was shot by then-deputy Erick Gelhaus.

Lopez was walking on the sidewalk past an empty lot carrying an Airsoft BB gun, which Gelhaus reportedly mistook for a real weapon. The boy’s death sparked months of protests and marches as well as a civil lawsuit still making its way through the courts. In 2016, Gelhaus was promoted to sergeant.

Longtime Santa Rosa activist Judy Kennedy, who along with Dominguez was present Tuesday morning when Uribe swapped the panel, said the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office has made no attempt to reach out to the Lopez family or the community in an attempt to heal the pain and division caused by the fatal shooting.

The panel, she said, “just isn’t representative of what’s happening in the community. It was a stab in the gut to the family.”

Sgt. Spencer Crum, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, rejected the claim his agency has made no attempt to bridge divisions caused by the shooting.

“We’ve made strides at connecting with that neighborhood,” Crum said. “As a matter of fact, we’re going out to the Moorland neighborhood for National Night Out and we just had ‘Ice Cream with a Cop’ in Roseland a week ago where 175 people showed up. . . . We’re doing everything we can to heal relationships in that community.”

Responding to claims the Sheriff’s Office has made no effort to reach out to the family, Crum said, “They’re suing us. We’re in the middle of a legal issue.”

Uribe said Tuesday he did not intend to offend the Lopez family and that after meeting with activists and supporters of the Lopez family he agreed to paint a new panel.

The new panel depicts a protest march to the Sheriff’s Office, with Sujey Lopez carrying a portrait of her son, Andy.

The large mural is one of a number of temporary improvements done to spruce up the space before the redevelopment project begins. The improvements include a community center and library, a parkette, or small park, on Sebastopol Road and a playground near the Joe Rodota Trail.

It also includes arts improvements, such as the mural and other public painting projects, said Jim Leddy, special projects director of the Sonoma County Community Development Commission.

Leddy said CDC contracted with Santa Rosa-based Artstart to spearhead the site’s arts improvements. Both Leddy and Uribe said the mural and its design were discussed in several public forums, including a Sonoma County Arts Commission meeting, but few members of the community attended.

The panels were also on display at the nearby community center, Uribe said.

Some of the people who argued for the panel to be changed have organized a “rededication” of the mural Friday at 5:30 p.m.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.