The final message Sarahi Varela Lopez acquired from her husband, he was heading dwelling from work Thursday afternoon.
The couple and their 1-year-old son had come to Los Angeles a number of months earlier on trip, however working low on funds and wanting to remain longer, Juan Luis Gomez Ramirez discovered a job packing garments at a Commerce warehouse.
It usually took him 35 minutes on two buses to return dwelling to his brother-in-law’s home in East Los Angeles. However he by no means confirmed up.
About 13 minutes after he despatched the message, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division responded to a name of photographs fired on a Metro bus, Line 108, alongside the 6200 block of Slauson Avenue, two stops away from his work. When Gomez Ramirez didn’t arrive two hours later, Varela Lopez started a frantic search.
Few particulars have been launched, however officers mentioned on Monday that Gomez Ramirez was on the bus when Winston Rivera got here aboard. When the bus got here to a cease, Rivera walked to the rear exit, stopped behind Gomez Ramirez, pointed a gun at his head and shot him, in response to a information launch from Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón.
Gomez Ramirez was rushed to a hospital, however he didn’t survive. Deputies apprehended Rivera a brief distance from the scene underneath a prepare. Gascón charged Rivera, 30, on Monday with homicide within the demise of Gomez Ramirez.
“They took away a terrific father from my baby. My son solely loved his father for a short while,” she mentioned in an interview. “They took somebody I cherished a lot.”
It’s the second killing of a Metro passenger in lower than a month and got here hours after Mayor Karen Bass ordered a surge of legislation enforcement on Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority trains and buses in an effort to ease fears amongst passengers.
Mirna Soza, a 66-year-old from Nicaragua, was stabbed on the Common Metropolis station final month as she was getting off the prepare. There are eerie similarities between the 2 assaults. Each victims relied on the the prepare or bus, and have been killed in an unprovoked assault.
The sheriff’s workplace has not mentioned whether or not Gomez Ramirez exchanged phrases with the shooter, however Varela Lopez mentioned that’s unlikely. Even in marital arguments, her husband demurred. He at all times walked away from hassle, averted issues, she mentioned. He was recognized amongst family and friends because the accountable one, the one who confirmed as much as work on time. The one who helped pals.
It’s exhausting to grasp why a person with a gun was allowed on a bus, mentioned Mario Acosta Jr., an lawyer representing the household. Airports don’t enable contraband on planes, he factors out, however there’s no such protocol for buses.
“There’s $150 million allotted yearly” to legislation enforcement on the Metro, he mentioned. “However, I don’t know what it’s going in the direction of.”
Varela Lopez met Gomez Ramirez whereas they have been finding out to be lecturers in Puebla, Mexico. As a part of their coursework, they taught lessons to kids with disabilities. Early on there was a spark between them that grew as they shared their passions for his or her career. She was impressed by his method, his dedication and attentiveness.
“We shared goals, the identical goals,” she mentioned. Later these goals became plans of getting three kids and touring. Ultimately he wished to change into a historical past instructor.
They obtained married two years in the past and shortly began constructing their household. He taught kids at public college of their city of Acajete through the day, and within the afternoon coached a youth basketball staff. He motivated the kids to do higher, go additional.
“That is very unhappy for information for those who had the pleasure of figuring out him and what a unprecedented human being he was,” a father or mother of a baskeball participant wrote Varela Lopez after listening to the information. “We’re in a lot ache.”
A household photograph of Sarahi Varela Lopez, holding son Elliot, 1, together with her husband, Juan Luis Gomez Ramirez. Ramirez was killed final week on a Metro bus in Commerce.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Instances)
The couple was excited to return to Los Angeles. They’d saved cash and Varela Lopez’s mother joined them within the journey. They went to Disneyland, ate out with household and deliberate to remain a number of weeks and return. However they determined they might keep longer, discover extra locations and anticipate his brother, who was additionally a instructor in Puebla, to fulfill them within the coming months at a Yu-Gi-Oh! match, a Magna buying and selling card sport.
Varela Lopez was feeding their son when Gomez Ramirez’s final textual content got here. She known as him, so the boy may say hello to his father. He didn’t reply. A couple of minutes later she despatched him one other textual content to let him know she known as. Then she despatched one other. She was hungry. When would he be dwelling? Round two hours after he left work, nonetheless nothing. Is every part OK? she requested. Nothing. Reply me, she wrote, an hour later.
Apprehensive, her sister-in-law took her and the newborn to search for him at his work. Not there. She may see his telephone was nonetheless on as a result of the 2 shared their places. His location was darting across the map: first to a hospital, then the East Los Angeles sheriff’s station. She went to each, with an image on her telephone, asking if anybody had seen Gomez Ramirez.
As night time fell, she thought possibly he had been assaulted and was unconscious. A couple of years again, anyone hit her brother on the again of the pinnacle and robbed him after he obtained off a bus in downtown Los Angeles.
“A number of various things have been occurring in my thoughts,” she mentioned. She went to the close by police station in Montebello and filed a lacking individuals report.
“They advised me they couldn’t do something however take a report. They mentioned these items occur usually after which they return dwelling,” she mentioned. “However I insisted. He isn’t like that. One thing is occurring as a result of I used to be following his location and it stored altering.”
They mentioned she may observe him and monitor hospitals and police to see if he confirmed up. So she returned to the station in East LA. Nothing, once more. The situation moved to downtown. Then her husband’s location on the telephone stopped. There she discovered a deputy and advised him what had occurred.
“The situation is displaying that he’s right here, however I don’t see him,” she advised the deputy. Some minutes later, detectives approached her and started to ask questions.
“That’s once they advised me that an individual died,” she mentioned. “They requested if I acknowledged his pockets.”
“Once I obtained the information, I couldn’t imagine. I couldn’t concentrate,” she mentioned. She heard them telling her sister-in-law he was shot and brought to the hospital, and there was a suspect in custody.
“I advised the police, it isn’t him,” she mentioned. “Possibly you confused the pockets. It could actually’t be him.”
“How was he dressed?” they requested. She described him. “It’s him.”
“I used to be certain that it was a dream,” she mentioned. “I believed he was gonna come dwelling and see his child.”
The following morning, a physician advised her that he had no heartbeat when he arrived on the hospital.
“He had so many goals, so many objectives,” she mentioned. “We’d like justice for him.”
“No one deserves to dwell in an unsafe place, the place they’re fearful,” she mentioned. “And far much less obtain a name, ‘I’m sorry, ya falleció.”
A GoFundMe has been set as much as help the household.
Instances employees writers Keri Blakinger and James Queally contributed to this report.
