Seventeen-year-old Luis Angel Lopez Jr, known to family as Junior, was fatally wounded on June 7, 2019, at a residence on North Country Home Lane in Tucson. A student at Sonoran Science Academy who planned to follow his father into the military, he was described as a devoted son and brother and a role model to his younger siblings.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Department reported the shooting appeared accidental. Investigators say Luis’s 19-year-old uncle, Raymundo Lopez-Casillas, was unloading an AK-47 in his room and, unaware a round remained in the chamber, the weapon discharged. The bullet traveled through a wall and struck Luis in the back of the head; his mother, Jessica Lopez, found him without a heartbeat.

Detectives later found a cache of weapons and explosives in the home, including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, several homemade pipe bombs, and the AK-47. The Pima Regional Bomb Squad removed the devices and federal authorities took over the investigation; federal charges were brought related to the explosives. The family said they did not believe Lopez-Casillas intended to harm Luis, and Luis’s father urged greater gun safety in homes.

Did anyone in Tucson know Luis or have information about the household where this happened?