Minister, Man He Saved Are Heartened by Donations

The money came in donations as small as $5 and as large as $900, from groups or just people who wanted to reach out to Bennie Newton and Fidel Lopez.

Their lives had fatefully crossed the night the Los Angeles riots began, when Lopez, a native of Guatemala, was dragged from his truck at the corner of Florence and Normandie avenues and brutally beaten.

Newton, a black minister attempting to stop the violence, covered Lopez’s body with his own and screamed: “Kill him and you kill me too!” Newton saved Lopez and carried him to safety.

On Sunday, Newton gave Lopez $3,015 from money sent by about 150 people who heard their story. “I’ve heard from people from as far as Alaska and even from Australia,” the 59-year-old minister said to the small congregation of his Light of Love Church, which meets each Sunday at the La Tijera United Methodist Church in Westchester. “So many people have offered help and so many people want to help the Lopez family.”

Lopez stood beside him, seemingly overcome. He hugged Newton several times.

Before April 29, the stocky 47-year-old Lopez said he was a working man who devoted all his time to creating a better life for his wife and three daughters. That evening, he was taking the same route home that he always took because he lives a block from Florence and Normandie.

Now, the only trace of the 58 stitches needed on his face and head after Newton got him to a hospital is a deep, two-inch scar crossing his forehead. But fear and worries remain. Lopez suffers from headaches and is concerned “maybe something (permanent) happened to me.” But he has not received follow-up medical treatment because he lacks insurance.

The family, after staying a week with a relative, is back at their rented home in South Los Angeles. “There’s a lot of fear,” Lopez said. “No one wants to go out of the house.”

About $3,000 of the donated money will go to repay a contractor who had given him cash to buy a large amount of building materials for a job, Lopez said. He hopes to feel well enough to return to work in about two weeks, and he is worried about the future.

Newton said money was still coming in and would probably total $5,000. Lopez was grateful. “I have a family to support,” he said.

Some donated directly to Newton, a Hawthorne resident, as well. Rabbi Stuart Dauermann of the Ahavat Zion Synagogue in Beverly Hills sent him a $900 check to use “in relieving the suffering of people . . . due to the riots, or who are otherwise oppressed by current conditions.”

Los Angeles resident Steve Madden sent a $500 check because Newton’s intervention reminded him of a childhood incident when he was beaten up by a group of older black youths but was rescued by a black man.

“I was too young to think of asking him for his name,” Madden wrote. “I never formally thanked him. . . . This is pay-back time.”

The operator of a cleaning business during the week, Newton had gone to the intersection when the riots began to try to dissuade the gang members, looters and attackers from what they were doing. They kept pushing him away until he threw himself over Lopez.

The minister wants to use the money donated to him, which totaled about $1,600, to start a program he is calling Project Unity to target gang members.

Jesse Jacobs, a member of Newton’s congregation, was amazed by the turn of events. “Here was something that was meant to be evil,” he said, referring to the attack on Lopez. “But it’s been turning into good.”