Family of slain carjacking victim receives new van

“As of right now, I can’t transport my children anywhere, even to an appointment; the grocery store,” Karen Lopez-Martinez said outside Findlay Acura in Henderson, next to a sparkling clean and detailed 2016 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Passenger Van that seats 12.

“I think they’re going to be happy because they’ve been asking where our car is,” she said about her children, whose ages range from 3 to 11 years old.

She said she was speechless about how the community had stepped up to donate the van and more than $417,000 raised through a GoFundMe campaign since the Dec. 27 tragedy.

“This is a huge blessing,” she said.

Jerry Lopez, 39, was fatally shot Dec. 27 by a carjacker who was later shot and killed by Las Vegas police.

Lopez, who worked as a delivery driver for a linen company, was driving his family’s van to work when he was killed, police said.

Before stealing Lopez’s vehicle, 36-year-old Justin Davidson had fatally shot his mother on the 7500 block of Placid Street, according to police.

Davidson then stole a police car and carjacked another citizen on the 8500 block of Blue Diamond Road. At Durango and Windmill, police heard a gunshot and watched the man pull a victim, later identified by his family as Lopez, out of a van. Officers fired at the van as the suspect drove away.

The chase ended at Durango and Agate Avenue, where SWAT officers found Davidson dead inside the van.

The Metropolitan Police Department said Findlay Automotive reached out to the agency to offer help for the Lopez family after the shooting.

“The family van was destroyed when the incident occurred, leaving his widow and children in desperate need of transportation,” police wrote in a news release.

Metro Deputy Chief Nick Farese said the family’s van was being held as evidence for the police shooting investigation, describing the deaths as a “horrible event.”

“He was murdered in the van,” he explained, noting that the trauma associated with the vehicle would make it difficult for the family to use it again.

Metro officers, along with a therapy dog, joined Martinez as she received the keys to the vehicle. Representatives with the Clark County School District installed new car seats in the van, which had an oversized pink vow on its hood.

“For all the negative that we see,” Farese said, “this is just a little glimpse of positive that we could do in a negative situation.”

He emphasized Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill’s call for Metro officers to become better partners in the community.

“We can’t do it alone, we can’t arrest ourselves out of problems,” Farese said. “And even in this particular situation, we don’t have an opportunity to arrest the offender because he’s dead.”

Tyler Corder, chief financial officer for Findlay Automotive Group, said the company reached Metro right after they learned about the shooting in the news.

Police told them about the family’s need for transportation, and the dealership began looking through their inventory. They found the perfect vehicle at the Acura dealership.

“It’s not often that we would have this van in inventory,” he said.

Before presenting the keys, he shared a few words to the grieving mother.

“Karen, I’m just so sorry for the circumstances but we’re glad that we could step in and help a little bit,” Corder said.

She spoke to reporters about having to move on from the family’s loss.

“Honestly, I would never think in a million years this would be our life,” she said. “There’s just no words to grasp what’s going on — to fully say how thankful I am.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.