Qualla: Six Seconds on Moorland Avenue

Six Seconds on Moorland Avenue: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. The call came in at 3:13 p.m. on October 22, 2013. Deputy Erick Gelhaus, riding with his partner Michael Schemmel through the Moorland Avenue neighborhood of Santa Rosa, radioed a Code 20 -- person with a gun. Ahead of them, walking through a vacant lot just past the corner of West Robles Avenue, was a thirteen-year-old boy named Andy Lopez. He was carrying an airsoft replica of an AK-47 assault rifle, a toy whose orange safety tip had broken off. What happened next took six seconds. Seven bullets struck Lopez, at least four from behind, two of them fatal. The deputies held a defensive position until backup arrived, then approached with weapons drawn. They handcuffed the boy before confirming that the weapon beside him was plastic. Andy Lopez was born on June 2, 2000. He was thirteen years old.

Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Six Seconds on Moorland Avenue: A Boy and a Toy Gun

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. Andy Lopez lived in a working-class, predominantly Latino neighborhood on the west side of Santa Rosa. The Moorland Avenue area sits between Highway 12 and the city's commercial corridors, a grid of modest homes and open lots where kids walked to school and played outside. On tha...

Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Six Seconds on Moorland Avenue: The Aftermath of a Decision

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. Deputy Gelhaus, a 24-year veteran of the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office, was also an Iraq War veteran and a firearms instructor who taught at Arizona's Gunsite Academy. He had never shot a suspect before. Investigators determined that Gelhaus fired when Lopez turned and appeared ...

Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Six Seconds on Moorland Avenue: A City in the Streets

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. The protests began almost immediately and did not stop for months. On October 25, more than a hundred people -- mostly middle and high school students -- gathered at Santa Rosa City Hall. On November 5, two hundred marched through the city, joined by activist Cindy Sheehan. Four ...

Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain

Six Seconds on Moorland Avenue: What Remains on Moorland Avenue

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Paul.h, Public domain. The Lopez family's federal civil rights lawsuit, filed on November 4, 2013, argued that Gelhaus had shot their son without reasonable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The case wound through the courts for five years. In June 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Sonoma C...

Image: en:User:Paul.h | Public domain