Kevan Baker wanted to forget Wanda Lopez's final moments. He ...

734 COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW [43.3:711
As he took a few steps inside, he was stunned by the mess.
There was “blood and money and stuff all over the place.” He grabbed
a handful of windshield towels and ran out, ready to pack them on
the wound.
As Baker knelt down, he heard sirens, and “the cops just
started flying in.” He told the officers where the man he’d seen had
run off. Then he stood back and let the officers do their job. A
sergeant told Baker to wait by the ice machine on the east wall
outside the store. Soon he was joined by other people who told police
they had information.
* * * * *
George Aguirre came first. Aguirre had purchased gas at the
Sigmor several minutes before Baker, around 8:00 p.m. While filling
his tank, he had noticed a Hispanic man by the ice machine drinking
beer. Police later found three empty beer cans in the area Aguirre
indicated. As Aguirre watched, the man slowly took a lock-blade knife
out of his front pants pocket, opened it, and put it back in his pocket.
Aguirre later described the Hispanic man as in his midtwenties,
maybe 5’10” and 175 pounds, with dark hair, “blue pants,”
and a “white, long-sleeved t-shirt.” A police account of Aguirre’s
initial description reported “tennis shoes, a T-shirt, and blue jeans.”
Aguirre tensed as the man approached him and asked for a
ride to the Casino Club, a Latino nightclub a couple of miles away.
The man offered Aguirre “money, beer, dope, whatever.” Aguirre
refused, then went inside to pay.
He told the young woman behind the counter that there was a
man outside with an open knife in his pocket. Aguirre offered to call
the police, but the clerk said she’d call herself. He waited until she
was on the phone with the 911 operator, then returned to his van and
drove off.
Ten minutes later, standing outside a nearby bowling alley,
Aguirre heard sirens and saw police cars heading towards the
Sigmor. He followed the squad cars and, when he reached the station,
approached an officer to explain what he’d seen earlier. Police
corralled him with Baker near the ice machine.
* * * * *
Julie and John Arsuaga were the final additions to the group
of witnesses by the ice machine. They had run over from Phase III, a
nightclub 115 yards east of the Sigmor, along the SPID frontage road.
Between the club and the gas station, along the same strip, stood two
other businesses: Ziebart’s car-detailing garage and a Harley-