Salvador Águila Lopez Lopez, a 56-year-old member of the Kansas City community known for helping friends with work, was found dead in the street in the early morning hours of August 15, 2022. Kansas City police responded about 2 a.m. to the 2500 block of Elmwood Avenue and discovered Lopez Lopez with multiple gunshot wounds; several shell casings were found nearby and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators traced the case to a nearby house where residents knew both Lopez Lopez and a man later identified as 39-year-old Verne E. Moore. Witnesses said Lopez Lopez arrived at the house around 9:15 p.m. and that Moore had been sitting in a parked SUV outside. The ex-girlfriend of Moore showed police a threatening text allegedly from Moore saying I bet you I kill him when he come back. Witnesses said Moore pointed a black handgun with a red-laser sight at Lopez, and after Lopez left the house an argument and then gunfire were heard.

Moore was taken into custody and charged in Jackson County Circuit Court with second-degree murder, unlawful use of a weapon, armed criminal action, and a felony count of first-degree harassment for alleged stalking of his ex-girlfriend. Does anyone have information about Lopez Lopez’s movements that night or about the neighborhood around Elmwood Avenue?