Storied Ex-Officer Aids in Son’s Arrest

A former San Diego police sergeant made famous in a book about a special undercover border crime unit helped authorities arrest his son, who was jailed Friday on suspicion of murdering his grandfather, police said.

Manny Lopez, a leading character in the Joseph Wambaugh book “Lines and Shadows,” assisted San Diego County sheriff’s deputies Thursday night in locating his 21-year-old son, a suspect in the Lemon Grove slaying.

Officials said that Michael Lopez, described as a shipyard worker, was being held without bail in connection with the death of his maternal grandfather, 63-year-old Bruce Corey.

According to sheriff’s homicide Lt. John Tenwolde, Ruth Corey returned home about 5:15 p.m. Thursday and found her husband lying on his back in the garage.

A coroner’s office spokesman said Friday that Bruce Corey was beaten on the face and also suffered multiple slash wounds. An autopsy is scheduled for today.

About 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Manny Lopez called the Sheriff’s Department and said he “might know the suspect” in the slaying, Tenwolde said. With help from the elder Lopez, deputies found Michael Lopez’s car parked on a Clairemont street.

Later that night, “the homicide detail, again acting on evidence and with direct assistance from Manny Lopez, contacted Michael Lopez at an apartment in La Mesa,” Tenwolde said.

The young man was questioned by authorities at the Lemon Grove sheriff’s station, and then held on suspicion of murder.

A possible motive in the slaying was not immediately known, and Tenwolde said detectives were continuing the investigation.

Manny Lopez, now working as a private security consultant, left the San Diego Police Department in 1979, after supervising the department’s much-publicized Border Area Robbery Force, known as BARF.

The task force was composed of undercover officers who posed as potential victims of criminals preying on illegal aliens along the border and was the subject of Wambaugh’s book.