EAST POINT, Ga. — The night after Thanksgiving, 29-year-old Juan Lopez was on the phone with his sister, while getting cash at an ATM in East Point. It was a 17 minute phone call that could give her answers on who could have killed her brother.
"It was just a regular phone call... then I heard hey 'bro, cough up the keys. Give me the keys'. And my brother was like 'no bro, don’t do this to me'. Then I heard five shots back after back," Juan's sister, who wishes to remain anonymous for safety reasons, recalled.
November 26 around 6:30 p.m. was the last time she got to talk to her brother and best friend.
“I heard when they ran over my brother and I heard his body drop. My brother was begging for his life," she said.
She remembers hearing several gunshots and multiple men on the call. She says her brother always talked on the phone with Bluetooth so the audio was picking up well.
His sister kept listening carefully, looking for clues on where this was happening, and who could have done this. She yelled for her father as she quickly got in her vehicle.
While driving around, she found that the crime scene was just a few minutes from her home, near East Point St. and Washington Rd.
"When I saw Juan... Juan was dead already," she said. "He was not moving. They ran over his head and his stomach... and his head was open. They didn’t even cover his body. The ambulance didn’t turn on the lights."
East Point Police say Juan was shot by one of many people, who then left the scene in a silver car.
Investigators have not said anything about the suspects except that they are "described as several males".
Both Juan's sister and wife of eight years believe the suspects involved knew him, but their big question is: why do this to him?
“He didn’t smoke, he didn’t drink, he didn’t have a crazy party life," his wife said. "His party was family."
Juan - who loved to draw, make jokes and just had a baby last year - was working six days a week. He took off three days during Thanksgiving week to be with his family.
He leaves a one year old behind and a loving family. He had dreams of growing his family even more. Juan and his wife dated for 14 years and were high school sweethearts.
"If there's such thing as winning the lottery with him, I definitely did," she said.
Juan would've turned 30 in December. Now, they’re raising money to send his body to Mexico, where he’ll be buried next to his grandparents. To donate, click here.
East Point's Criminal Investigations Division asks that anyone with information on this incident call 404-761-2177.