An 80-year-old man with 16 grandchildren has died after being viciously attacked and robbed in a Lancaster, California, grocery store bathroom last month.
The suspect, 22-year-old Damaris Wade, has been arrested, but was only charged with attempted murder since his elderly victim, Roberto Flores Lopez, initially survived the July 8th attack.
The Lopez family says that his death was the “result of severe injuries” sustained during the attack. According to a GoFundMe that was set up for his medical bills, the grandfather sustained five broken ribs, a broken eye socket, multiple facial fractures, and mental trauma from the incident. He was hospitalized for two weeks before being sent home.
The Nationalist Review reports that he also “suffered a broken jaw, nose, and ribs. He was concussed. He suffered internal injuries.”
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Wade and his 33-year-old girlfriend Tamika White were arrested on July 11 according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Wade was charged with one felony count each of attempted murder, elder abuse with infliction of injury and one count of second-degree robbery. White was charged with one felony count of accessory after the crime, but it has since been dropped.
People Magazine reports that “Wade has a prior robbery conviction from 2016, according to prosecutors. If convicted as charged, he potentially faces a possible maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.”
The Lopez family is now demanding that the charges be upgraded.
“This case went from just a robbery and an assault to murder. … We want this whole entire thing, for the guy that did this to my dad — for him to get it for manslaughter, and to get charges for manslaughter and murder, because my dad’s dead. He killed my dad,” the victim’s son Fransisco said, during a tearful press conference.
“We condemn this violence,” Miguel S. Coronado, a spokesperson for the family, said. “This will not be tolerated. We’re angry. We’re hurt. We’re upset. And we’re calling on anybody that is doing this against our people, or any people for that matter, that you will be caught. And you’ll be prosecuted. And we will support the LAPD, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to make sure that you are brought to justice, if you are hurting any human being and you leave them for dead.”
The charges have still not been upgraded.
