Friends of 26-year-old Jose Luis Lopez, a homeowner fatally shot by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office during a suspected burglary at Lopez’s home last month, will hold a vigil Sunday afternoon at Lake Ellenor Park to honor his memory and demand accountability for his killing.
Orlando Against Police Crimes, a grassroots group of local activists, is organizing the event.
“He was just protecting himself. I don’t see another way. He asked for help, and we were trying to help him. He didn’t deserve this,” Loida Zunun, a neighbor and friend of Lopez’s who called the deputies who later shot him, told WFTV shortly after the shooting.
What happened
Lopez was fatally shot by an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy at his home in the Pine Castle neighborhood on Feb. 8, after deputies claimed they saw Lopez wielding a knife against the neck of 25-year-old Cristian Duran-Contreras, a co-worker of Lopez.
Body camera footage of the incident, released one month after the shooting, reveals that there was no knife at all. “The investigation into the shooting is still under way. No knife was found at the scene,” a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said in a March 6 news release.
According to OCSO, two patrol deputies — Alex Duran and Paul Ortiz — who have since been placed on paid leave, pending an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, responded to a call about a suspected burglary at Lopez’s home on West Castle Street at about 11:30 p.m on Feb. 8. Upon approaching the back of the home and seeing an open window that appeared to have been propped open for entry, deputies heard a man calling for help in Spanish.
Through the open window, leading into a kitchen, deputies saw Lopez with Duran-Contreras — who’d unlawfully entered Lopez’s home through the kitchen window, OSCO alleges — in a headlock. Deputies believed they saw Lopez wielding a knife, a potentially deadly weapon. They also believed he was the suspected burglar, not knowing the home was actually his.
One deputy called for Lopez to “drop the knife” three times. The other deputy, who was on the side of the house near a locked door, heard his colleague’s exclamations, came around the corner, raised his gun, and both shot through the narrow slit of the open window, striking Lopez in the head. Lopez was transported to a nearby hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Duran-Contreras, who did roofing work with Lopez and had reportedly gotten into an argument with him earlier in the day over a beer purchase, has been charged with second-degree felony murder for Lopez’s death, two burglary charges and petit theft.
Duran-Contreras told investigators that “he had been drinking with Luis and was given permission to stay at the residence that night,” according to an arrest affidavit. The two had been drinking beer outside with two other people earlier in the day. Duran-Contreras at one point reportedly got angry with Lopez, according to an unnamed witness, because Lopez had asked him to contribute to their beer purchase.
Duran-Contreras “became very aggressive” and “broke a beer bottle,” according to the same witness, and Lopez ended up retreating inside his home. Duran-Contreras used a ladder from their work truck to climb inside the window in the back, leading into the kitchen. Lopez contacted another witness, who has since publicly identified herself, to ask for their help because he believed someone had broken into his home. She called 911 to report it.
Loida Zunun, a neighbor of Lopez’s and the witness who called 911, told Fox News 35 that Lopez had asked her to report the incident because he didn’t speak English himself. Duran-Contreras also told investigators that Lopez didn’t speak or understand English — a factor that could have contributed to deputies’ failure to communicate with Lopez before they shot him.
Per the arrest affidavit, Duran-Contreras’ “unlawful felonious actions resulted in the death of [Lopez], which constitutes Felony Murder by Florida State Statute.”
“It’s not fair. Everything that happened was not fair,” Zunun told Fox News 35.
Details of the vigil
Friends and others who knew Lopez will gather for a vigil at Lake Ellenor Park on Sunday, March 16, at 2 p.m., where Lopez used to play soccer, to honor his memory.
Community members are invited to join Lopez’s loved ones for the event.
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This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2025.