Andrew Lopez Jr. was 16 years old when he died on Friday, May 9, 2008, in Palmdale, in the Antelope Valley of northern Los Angeles County. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died of stab wounds at 41609 22nd St. West, in the northwest part of the city. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a case of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The Los Angeles Times Homicide Report said that Lopez, "a Latino youth, was stabbed in the chest in the 41000 block of 22nd Street West in Palmdale about 11 p.m." that Friday. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:35 p.m., about half an hour after he was hurt.
Authorities said that Lopez "was stabbed after an argument between two groups of men at a house party." The report added that "the men were uninvited." The suspects were described only as white, and they "were last seen driving a white pickup truck southbound on 22nd Street," authorities said.
Lopez was not the only one hurt. "Two other men were also stabbed and were taken by ambulance to a hospital, where they were recovering," the report said.
Those details suggest that there were a number of people at the party who saw at least part of what happened, and that the two men who survived their wounds may have been able to describe the attackers. The report does not say how many men were in the group that arrived uninvited, what the argument was about, or whether detectives later identified anyone.
Beyond that account, almost nothing about Andrew Lopez Jr. has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found for him, and no follow-up news story appears in the record. The name Andrew Lopez Jr. is also shared by other men, including a Pomona man arrested in an unrelated 2010 shooting and a young Texas man killed in a car crash, none of whom has any connection to this death. He was a teenager, and he surely had family, classmates and friends who remember him, but none of that has entered the public record.
Palmdale is one of the two largest cities of the Antelope Valley, the high desert region north of the San Gabriel Mountains. It grew quickly in the 1980s and 1990s as families moved north in search of more affordable homes, and many of its neighborhoods are tracts of single-family houses laid out on a grid of numbered streets. The streets on the west side of the city carry the "West" designation, and 22nd Street West runs north and south through residential areas.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Andrew Lopez Jr. could be found in news archives or public records. More than 17 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was at the house party on 22nd Street West on the night of May 9, 2008, who knew the men who arrived in a white pickup truck, or who heard talk about the stabbings in Palmdale that spring, may hold information that could help detectives. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477).
