STANTON

Juanita Lopez approached the City Council Tuesday night. “My son was murdered in front of our own home,” she began in a voice barely above a whisper. Visibly shaken, Lopez told city officials about her 18-year-old son, Bernard “B.J.” Garcia Lopez Jr., who was fatally shot two years ago by a suspected gang member. While the Orange County sheriff’s investigation in ongoing, she pleaded with city officials to help her family bring the killer to justice. Her son, she said, was not in a gang but was a popular high school senior at Rancho Alamitos High in Garden Grove. “There is a killer out there, somewhere in Stanton,” she said. The Lopez family and supporters have independently raised a $7,460 reward, but Lopez said that’s “not enough for my son’s life.” Council members agreed to help the Lopez family and will consider increasing the reward money. “If a reward is what is takes to help, then that’s money well spent,” Councilman David John Shawver said.