Two sought after slayings

  • By Katherine Schiffner, Scott Morris and Diana Hef / Herald Writers
  • Thursday, August 26, 2004 9:00pm
  • Local NewsLocal news

EDMONDS – Police on Thursday continued their search for two men suspected of fatally shooting Nolberto Lopez-Rodriguez and Adan Ernandez at an Edmonds apartment complex Wednesday night.

A dispute between the four men turned deadly about 10:20 p.m. when one of them suddenly pulled a gun and opened fire, neighbors said.

“It was something that you could never expect,” said Lopez-Rodriguez’s brother, Antonio Lopez, who said he witnessed the shootings.

Lopez said a next-door neighbor shot his brother and Ernandez after a trivial conversation turned sour. He insisted that the man was not provoked and that there was no obvious reason why he became angry.

The shooting happened at the Village Apartments at 8201 Ballinger Way. Ernandez, 23, died at the scene. Lopez-Rodriguez, 36, was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he died shortly afterward of multiple gunshot wounds.

Edmonds police suspect the argument was about money owed for a vehicle, but Lopez and family friend Raul Gonzalez said that wasn’t the reason for the gunfire.

“My brother never asked anything from him, and he never asked anything from my brother,” Lopez said.

He said he had warned his brother about the neighbor in the past.

“I told my brother to be careful around him, because he always walks around with a pistol,” Lopez said.

A half-dozen children were playing in the apartment complex parking lot when the violence spilled out of apartment No. 11, neighbors said.

“It just really surprised me, because everyone’s been real friendly and quiet from that end” of the complex, said neighbor Reid Dickey, whose girlfriend saw the shooting and pulled their 6-year-old son to safety.

Gonzalez said Lopez-Rodriguez and Ernandez, the boyfriend of Lopez-Rodriguez’s sister, often visited the complex and hadn’t had previous problems with the neighbor.

“Everyone is shocked. We were always thinking he would do something like that, but not to us, because he knows us,” Gonzalez said. “He always thought he was a tough guy. … He just wasn’t thinking.”

The second man sought by police is also suspected of shooting at Lopez-Rodriguez and Ernandez, Edmonds Assistant Police Chief Gerry Gannon said. The man may have lived at the complex, too.

Friends and neighbors came to Lopez’s apartment Thursday to mourn the death of his brother and Ernandez.

Lopez-Rodriguez was easygoing and enjoyed spending time with his brother’s family, Gonzalez said. He left behind a wife and children when he moved here from Mexico about a year ago.

Ernandez, who is also from Mexico, had been in the country longer and “was really cool with everyone, the kind of guy who got along with everybody,” Gonzalez said.

Family members are coming from Mexico for the men’s funerals, which had not been scheduled as of Thursday.

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