Painter Killed In Northridge Graffiti Shooting Died For Love: Report

NORTHRIDGE, CA — A worker killed while painting over graffiti outside a Northridge ice cream shop last month was new to this country and happy he found work so that he could send money home in time for his nine-year-old daughter's birthday, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

He had no idea he was risking his life, according to police.

Police say Juan López, 39, was murdered by a gang member who admitted to detectives he opened fire because he was angry to see his tagging along Parthenia Street being painted over.

Jamal Jackson, 24, of Panorma City, was set to be arraigned Tuesday in a San Fernando courtroom on one count each of murder and possession of a firearm by a felon and four counts of attempted murder, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. The charges include allegations that Jackson personally used a handgun and personally inflicted great bodily injury.

Police allege Jackson shot into the group of painters with a semiautomatic “Uzi”-style handgun because he was angry that they were painting over his graffiti. Lopez died of gunshot wounds at a hospital a short time later, according to police. Three other men working alongside him were shot, and two underwent surgery.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Lopez traveled 3,339 miles to escape the violence plaguing his native Nicaragua — getting kidnapped and held for ransom along the way in Mexico — only to die in a random explosion of violence three months after his arrival in this city.

Lopez, who participated in protests against his oppressive government fled to avoid being killed for his beliefs, his sister told the Times.

“When one opposes the government in Nicaragua, they are at danger of getting arrested or disappeared. He wanted to avoid that. That’s why he left,” his sister Ruth López Suarez told the newspaper. “Now that we lost my brother, we see the truth that we didn’t realize before. In my home country, you don’t see those things where someone comes randomly and kills you. ... You have to have a problem with someone for that to happen. ... Here, they kill you because they want to, or because they confuse you with someone, or simply because you’re working, and they kill you."

Lopez Suarez has established a GoFundMe page to raise money so that she can send her brother's body back home, so his three children Brittany, 9; Johan, 12; and Edward, 13 can mourn him.

Click here to read the full Los Angeles Times story about the life and death of Juan López.