NAMED NATIONAL FOUR-YEAR DAILY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR FOR 2020-21 IN THE COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION’S PINNACLE AWARDS
Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023
Volume 160 No. 12 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
BRYANNA BARTLETT | SPARTAN DAILY
Two vigil attendees hold up a poster that features Antonio Guzman Lopez and his son, Josiah, at South Eighth and East San Salvador streets – the location of his death in 2014.
Family holds vigil for UPD shooting victim By Dominique Huber
Lopez was then shot twice in the back. One of the bullets went through his body and into a nearby sorority house, according A small group of family and friends to a 2019 NBC Bay Area article. gathered Tuesday evening for the vigil of Antonio Guzman Lopez, who was killed by San Jose State University Police Department officers nine years ago. Lopez was shot during a confrontation with two UPD officers on Feb. 21, 2014. According to the UPD police report, officers were called after there were reports of a man wielding a knife on the intersection of S. Eighth and San Salvador St. When officers arrived at the scene, they thought Lopez was acting strange because of alcohol or drugs, according to the UPD police report. When officers told Lopez to drop the He was transported to a nearby hospital weapon, he refused and started to run away, where he died from his wounds, according according to the same report. to the same NBC article. STAFF WRITER
Laurie Valdez, who was Lopez’s partner She said the hardest part about losing for seven years at the moment of his death, Lopez was explaining to her son why his dad was one of the key speakers at the vigil. died that night. “Something wrong was done here,” Valdez “We try to keep putting up the memorial every year right here,” Valdez said. “Antonio was buried in Nayarit, Mexico so my son, the only place he has to remember his dad is right here where they took his life. He’s been growing up without his dad and he wants accountability.” Social work masters student Lana Gomez, is one of Valdez’s friends who participate in the vigil. Gomez said UPD needs to do more than Lana Gomez just show up to vigils and say they support social work masters student police reform. “The best thing the San Jose community can do to support victims of police brutality said. “All the students that come through is to really hear the voice of those who have will know the story and they won’t brush it under the rug.” VIGIL | Page 2
They need to do real work and honestly put their money where their mouth is. You’ve caused so much pain– pay these families, create scholarships in their name, talk to them and see what they want directly.
Disaster response team talks safety By Enrique Gutierrez-Sevilla STAFF WRITER
San Jose State, located around the Calaveras, San Andreas and Hayward-Rodgers Creek faults, is vulnerable to earthquakes. SJSU’s emergency response and preparedness program works to create and enforce emergency operation plans in response to natural disasters. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Türkiye and Syria has drawn concerns from students about the safety of SJSU campus if it were to experience an earthquake of similar magnitude. Some campus buildings including Tower Hall, Morris Dailey Auditorium, Dwight Bentel Hall and Yoshihiro Uchida Hall were built over 100 years ago, some of which were a part of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake according to SJSU King Library Digital Collections. Traci Ferdolage, senior associate vice president of Facilities, Development and Operations, said campus buildings were built under the California Building Code and California State University Seismic Policy. “The CSU system is focused on safety for students, faculty and staff for any type of emergency,” Ferdolage said. Seismic policy requirements were implemented by the Board of Trustees, according to the CSU Office Of The Chancellor. The board of trustees is a 25-member committee that governs the entire CSU system through campus planning, education policy, facilities, and finances. CSUs perform independent technical peer reviews to inspect construction and design of campus buildings to ensure that protective safety measures are in place to avoid severity of injury from an earthquake, according to the CSU seismic policy. “Campus buildings were evaluated for seismic safety over the last few years and all were determined to be suitable for ongoing use,” Ferdolage said. EARTHQUAKE | Page 2
ENRIQUE GUTIERREZ-SEVILLA | SPARTAN DAILY
Huda Mirza, justice studies junior and Mehmood Rahmatullah, applied and computational math senior, present baked goods at the Türkiye and Syria earthquake relief bake sale on Tuesday afternoon at the MOSIAC Cross Cultural Center.