‘Devoted Hardworking’ Landscaper Was Despatched to Trim a Tree Exterior a House. The Renter Allegedly Shot Him To Demise

A person who was employed as a landscaper by a landlord was allegedly fatally shot by a renter on the property, police stated.

Manuel Vega Lopez, 51, was killed in Gilbert, Ariz., on Monday, Could 19, the Gilbert Police Division stated in a statement. 

The next day, police arrested 28-year-old Wyatt Ford in reference to the capturing, per the assertion. 

Authorities say police responding to a report of an “argument” discovered Lopez’s physique in entrance of a residence.

Lopez was shot whereas police had been en route. 

Based on courtroom paperwork cited by AZ Family, ABC 15 and AZ Central, Ford assumed Lopez was chargeable for what Ford and his spouse believed to be a break-in of their trailer just a few days prior. 

Nonetheless, authorities alleged in courtroom paperwork that Ford had been knowledgeable by the owner {that a} landscaper can be coming to the placement to trim timber within the yard, the retailers reported. 

Ford’s spouse informed authorities Ford had acquired the textual content message and responded to it.

After the capturing, one witness alleged they heard Ford saying “I didn’t imply to,” in accordance with courtroom paperwork cited by AZ Central.

Renter accused of killing landscaper employed by landlord to trim timber in Gilbert

In a GoFundMe set as much as help his household with taking his physique to his native Mexico, Lopez’s daughter stated he was a “devoted hardworking landscaper” and the “eyes and legs” for his spouse, who’s on dialysis and dropping her eyesight.

“He was a caring, attentive, respectful and loving husband, father and buddy. A life full of affection, hope, happiness and something life may supply,” Manuelita Vega stated within the fundraiser.

“He constructed our household a house not in magnificence however in simplicity and contentment. As a father, he labored with all his power in all of the methods he may, to earn the earnings and gave his household all of the help he may,” she added.

Lopez’s son, a most cancers survivor, additionally stays in poor health because the household grieves the “caring, attentive” landscaper’s loss of life, Vega wrote.

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Wyatt Ford was taken into the custody of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Workplace on prices of second-degree homicide, per Gilbert Police’s assertion.

It wasn’t instantly clear if he has entered a plea. An lawyer listed for him in courtroom data didn’t reply to PEOPLE’s request for remark.