Police Seek Suspect in July Fourth Stabbing

VAN NUYS —  The Fourth of July slaying of Julio Lopez outside his family’s Sepulveda Boulevard apartment was the tragic culmination of a long-standing feud between the immigrant carpet-maker and a former friend, police said.

As Lopez’s widow struggled to come to terms with her new life as a single mother, police continued to search Sunday for Carlos Garcia, 30, of North Hollywood, the man they say stabbed Lopez as he stood near his home, drinking with friends.

Daisy Hernandez, 29, said her husband was a devoted family man who worked hard making carpets for a company in Los Angeles.

“He was a hard worker,” Hernandez said in Spanish. “He liked to joke. He was very happy.”

Hernandez said her husband, who was 34, left their apartment to go outside with friends at 9 p.m. Friday.

“About five minutes later he came back bleeding and falling down,” Hernandez recalled. Their only child, 9-year-old Nancy, opened the door for her bleeding father. He collapsed on the carpet.

“She didn’t want to believe he was dead,” Hernandez said of her daughter. “She saw when her father was dying. She asked me what we were going to do without her father.”

Nancy, who will enter fifth grade at Cohasset Street School in Van Nuys in the fall, said she had been planning a party for her father “with a cake and dancing and ice cream” to mark his 35th birthday on July 13.

Originally from Nicaragua, Lopez and Hernandez came to Los Angeles because life in their homeland was too difficult, Hernandez said. She is now trying to raise money to send her husband’s body back to his birthplace for burial.

Hernandez said she plans to stay in the area and is looking for work as a housekeeper.

“I will stay here for my daughter,” she said, “so that she can continue her studies.”

Police said the trouble began when Garcia approached Lopez and started an argument.

A fight broke out and Garcia stabbed Lopez several times, then fled, said homicide Det. Angel Lopez and Det. Gregory Yacoubian of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Division.

Lopez was pronounced dead at the scene.

Garcia is 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall, weighs 185 to 190 pounds, police said, and drives a blue Ford sedan.

Hernandez is a Times staff writer. Haynes is a correspondent.