Death in the battle to be king
Over the past few days, the story of Noel Richard Lopez - a 25-year-old Texas transplant to Seattle who was found beaten to death at a construction site near 7th & Madison last week - has been the subject of more in-depth coverage. Though the link between Lopez's death and the Puyallup home explosion that killed convicted sex offender Zane Dittman last Monday has since been proven false, the truth coming out regarding the Lopez case is just as sensational.An unremarkable death that initially appeared as just a few sentences buried in the Times' Local Digest, interesting details have emerged this weekend that paint a bizarre picture of amateur fight clubs and the inner city heavyweight title for which blood has now been shed:
On Sunday, Lopez and the suspect, who is 6 feet 2 inches and weighs 220 pounds, wrestled at Freeway Park for the title of "King of Freeway Park," according to court documents.The scenario sounds almost laughable: a group of more than 20 people, gathering unnoticed at a park in the middle of urban Seattle, watching a couple of dudes duke it out. But then it gets nasty.
The victim's family has said Lopez competed in entertainment wrestling.
About 20 of the suspect's friends, some of them drinking, watched as the suspect won the match, the court documents state.
From the sound of things, Lopez lost fair and square (or as fair as is possible in a battle with such a physically well-matched adversary). Why he didn't just depart with his tail between his legs is beyond me; it's a move that would have likely saved his life. Instead...
At some point, the suspect who was arrested and a second person, a 20-year-old man, walked with Lopez to the construction site to "handle this problem and straighten him out."Even though the suspect claims Lopez was the aggressor, I'm skeptical. There are questions here that have yet to be answered:
But the 22-year-old suspect told detectives that once they arrived, Lopez "came at him to fight him." That is when the two men knocked Lopez unconscious, but he regained consciousness.
The beating continued, as the men stomped on Lopez's stomach and chest, prosecutors said. They also hit and kicked him while he was on the ground and broke boards over his head and body, according to court documents.
The arrested suspect told investigators that the second man hit Lopez with a large metal object. The overall beating lasted "several hours," he said.
- Why would these guys need to "straighten [Lopez] out" if the main suspect had already kicked his ass?
- Why did the beatings continue after Lopez was knocked out and regained consciousness, and why did the suspects use weapons when - if a beating was really all they had in mind - the job could just as easily have been done with their fists?
- Several hours? Don't know where these suspects are from, but it seems like anytime you beat someone for that long you're doing so with the impression they won't be getting up to walk it off.
Sometimes, being king isn't all it's cracked up to be. If only someone had told this to Noel Richard Lopez, he might still be alive today.
Thanks for running this story, I thought it was increadibly sad and disturbing. The victim's mother has said publicly that her son suffered from bipolar disorder and had recently been fired from his job for acting eratically after being a model employee for quite some time. Apparently, towards the end, his behavior at work included challenging coworkers to fights and collecting garbage in an attempt to "build a robot" according to his employer.
He didn't deserve to die, especially in such a horrific manner. That two people would do such damage to another human with their bare hands over a period of hours is unimaginable for me... but it only serves to make it that much more tragic that the victim, in the end, probably wasn't even rational enough to really fully comprehend what he was getting himself into.
Sadly... even if someone had told Mr. Lopez that being king wasn't worth it, I'm not certain it would have changed the events that took place.
I like your story, unfortunately thinking that there was something that could have been said or done to prevent this from happening is not as simple as it sounds. This was my friend to which this horrible crime was committed, he was ill and needed more than just helpful advice to make him better.
I like to think that the real news story here is how friends and family were unable to do anything for their manic depressive bi-polar friend, brother, son who time and time again was denied help from both Swedish Medical Center and Harborview. All he needed was a pill and professional care to help him get his life back on track. Seattle has nothing set-up for these individuals with mental health issues to get better, so they become Homeless and at that point the system no longer cares about them anymore. The only way he would have been committed was if he was a danger to society. The only danger Noel was in was to himself. Without Health insurance the mentally ill become lost, misunderstood, and alone on the streets. That is where Noel's life tragically ended.
When he was well he was a functioning part of society. Noel was Good looking, kind, intelligent, and very creative. He was my friend and he will be missed. I wish I could have done more, but there was nothing I could have done without professional help.