Widow of man shot dead in unprovoked attack on L.A. Metro bus speaks out

The wife of a man tragically gunned down on a Metro bus in Commerce last week is speaking out and sharing her pain over what investigators are calling a random and unprovoked murder.

The fatal May 16 shooting happened just before 5 p.m. aboard a Metro bus at Slauson and Boxford avenues.

Authorities say the suspect, 30-year-old Winston Apolinario Rivera, got on the bus in the 6200 block of Slauson and sat behind his victim, 32-year-old Juan Luis Gomez-Ramirez.

“As the bus came to a stop, the defendant allegedly walked to the rear exit, stopped behind Gomez-Ramirez, pointed a gun at his head and shot, instantly killing him,” prosecutors with the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Sarahi Lopez, the victim’s widow, told KTLA’s Chris Wolfe that she still feels compelled to visit the crime scene, parts of which are still stained with blood from the senseless shooting.

“With every day that passes, I feel more and more confused, like I don’t have any answers,” Lopez said in Spanish, as her attorney, Mario Acosta Jr., translated.

Lopez said she’s been agonizing over how the deadly incident happened, say her husband and father to their 1-year-old boy, was not the type to cause any conflict with anyone.

The couple worked as special education teachers in Mexico and had arrived in Los Angeles in February for a vacation. Wanting to stay longer, but needing cash, her husband landed a job packing clothes at a Commerce warehouse not far from where the shooting occurred.

Rivera was captured in the 6100 block of Peachtree Street, where he was hiding under a train, officials said. The 30-year-old has since been charged by the DA’s office with murder and a special allegation that he used a firearm while committing a crime.

“I need the killer to tell me why he did what he did,” Lopez said through her attorney. “I want him to be punished because he ended our family.”

Gomez-Ramirez’s killing came just hours after board members of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority held a press conference to talk about their response to a spree of high-profile violent incidents on and near buses and trains.

On May 13 alone, there were two separate stabbings aboard the Metro system. In the weeks leading up to those incidents, there was a stabbing on a train that left a grandmother dead in Studio City and another that left a bus driver and passenger in South Los Angeles injured.

On May 5, a driver on a Dash bus, which is operated by the city of L.A., was brutally assaulted by a homeless woman in an attack that was captured on video.

In March, a transient armed with an airsoft gun hijacked a Metro bus and crashed into the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Los Angeles.

Armed, dangerous attempted murder suspect wanted in Southern California

The family’s attorney is now working to help Lopez with immigration issues, so she can stay in the United States and participate in the trial of her husband’s accused killer. The widow is considering a lawsuit against Metro and potentially other entities.

In the meantime, a GoFundMe has been organized to help her and her young son get by during this terrible ordeal.

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