By Olin Ericksen
Staff Writer

December 19 -- More than nine months after high school sophomore Eddie Lopez was fatally shot on a Pico Boulevard street corner, homicide Detective Virginia Obenchain returned to the scene of the crime that shook a community.

"Each homicide and death is very emotional," said the sergeant, brushing back her hair from penetrating hazel eyes as she spoke. "But you have to put that aside so you can think clearly."

Standing a few feet from where a single bullet killed the 15-year-old on the night of February 28, the lead detective and 23-year veteran offered a rare insight into how she is handling the high-profile case.

Investigating the death of someone like Lopez -- by all accounts, a popular young athlete not involved in the gangs that plague the neighborhood -- is never easy for police, she said.

"You always think about it," Oberchain said. "But you have to be objective. It's not personal, because you have to remain detached."

Sgt. Gary Herman and Lt. Ray Cooper (center) with homicide Detective Virginia Obenchain (Photo by Olin Ericksen)

Her candid comments came not as police gathered new evidence or re-interviewed witnesses at the scene. Instead, Oberchain and her colleagues stood outside the mini-mart -- one week after Santa Monica's new police chief, Tim Jackman of Long Beach, took his post -- to update the public on the progress of the case.

"We are talking about nine months on an investigation and some people may call that long-term," said Lieutenant Ray Cooper, Detective Division commander and a 31-year homicide detective.

"We may also at times think that's long-term, but compared to 30 year cases and 10 year cases, it’s not that long yet."

Through his deliberate tone, Cooper -- whose shaved head recalls Kojak in the popular 1970s cop show -- stressed that while cases are solved inside an hour on television, it takes much more work to catch and prosecute real-life killers.

"I'm sure you see the progress, from the public's point of view, as slow," said Cooper. "But from a law enforcement point of view and a homicide investigator’s point of view, we look at investigations and the possibility that it is going to be long term."

Much the way architects erect buildings from the ground up, Cooper said police are methodically working to build a prosecution against everyone involved to make a conviction stick.

"It's a very tedious process," he said. "We build and build and gather that information, verify, double verify, until we have enough that leads us to believe a person or persons is responsible for the crime."

Likening their role to that of "fact-gatherers," Cooper said police must preserve all possible evidence to build a foundation for the case.

"We know we have to build the structure (of the case) so it will sustain itself in a prosecution," he said.

And while police always look for a break -- some piece of evidence indisputably linking the killer to the crime -- the Lopez murder may turn out to be like other difficult gang-related murders that can drag on for years, Cooper said.

"From the moment we get the call, we always look at it like it could be a long term investigation, but hope for an early resolution," he said. "But if you don't get a break in the case early on, you have to steel yourself for a long-term, grinding out investigative effort."

Detectives confirmed what many already know about the February 28 shooting, but offered very few, if any, details about what they have learned since.

"We still believe it was a gang-related crime," Cooper said. "A gang rivalry, with the caveat that we are not saying Eddie Lopez was a gang member."

"We have no information that Eddie Lopez was involved in any criminal activity, nothing has come to light like that," he said.

On the corner of 26th Street and Pico Boulevard, Sgt. Obenchain went back over the events of the night of February 28 when a single gunman approached Lopez.

"Eddie was here with his (two) friends, standing outside” at a corner, she said. Several “shots were fired and one hit Eddie. Eddie ran for a short distance, collapsed and died."

From reports published soon after in The Lookout, a white truck was also seen speeding away from the scene. Police, however, have not confirmed if the vehicle was a get-away car.

Detectives said they believe the shooting might have been, not a deliberate attack against Lopez, but a spur of the moment act by a gang from outside Santa Monica.

"If you are in an area where gang members happen to be and a rival gang sees you, it's an opportunity," said Cooper. "You might just be the duck in the pond that gets shot."

Police also said they could neither confirm nor deny whether either of Lopez’s friends may have been the intended target, or if they were in any way connected to local gangs.

While acknowledging that the information may not be anything new for anyone following the case, Cooper said it is important to not disclose too much to the public, because it could hurt police progress in catching the killer or killers.

"Detail is important to us because details allow us to conduct interviews and review evidence that we obtain from suspects that may connect to the specifics of the crime," said Cooper. "If we reveal that, we may compromise our investigation… so we have to keep things close to our chest."

"I know from a lot of years of doing this that the media want and expects us to inform them of everything," Cooper added. "But our primary mission protecting interests of the victims…and protect the community, so we have to be circumspect about what we say.

"We would not want to tip our hand now because we are not ready to present any cases to anybody,” he said.

Despite an anonymous tip line and guarantees that the identity of witnesses will be protected, it is often difficult to mine information from the community, Cooper said.

"We promote very, very vigorously that if anyone has information that is pertinent, they should come forward," said Cooper. "But the information is sparse."

Still, police are determined to catch the killers, no matter how long it takes, Cooper said.