By Khalida Sarwari
A man was fatally shot in the Live Oak area of Santa Cruz County over the weekend, according to the sheriff’s office.
Omar Lopez, a 22-year-old Santa Cruz resident, died shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday at a gas station near the intersection of 17th Avenue and Rodriguez Street, where the shooting reportedly occurred, sheriff’s officials said.
It appears Lopez was sitting in the passenger side of a car parked on the side of the roadway near that intersection when someone approached and shot him at close range, sheriff’s officials said.
A friend of Lopez’s was sitting in the driver’s seat and saw the shooting but was not harmed. He drove Lopez to a nearby gas station and asked employees to call police, sheriff’s officials said.
No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting.
The sheriff’s office is investigating the murder and asks anyone with information to call either sheriff’s office dispatch at (831) 471-1121, the investigations unit at (831) 454-2311 or an anonymous tip line at (831) 454-2847.