Latino gang suspect faces murder trial for killing Black man in Panorama City turf clash

Clyde Moore, a 70-year-old Black resident, was fatally shot while waiting in his red Jaguar outside a Panorama City apartment complex known for drug activity. According to testimony, Andrew Lopez, a 26-year-old reputed member of the predominantly Latino Blythe Street gang, approached Moore and his wife, demanded payment, and later fired a gun, killing Moore with a shot to the back of his head. Officers say the three-story building on Tobias Avenue serves as Blythe Street’s drug-dealing hub and has been the scene of multiple gang killings, including a 2018 murder ordered by imprisoned gang leader Ezequiel “Wicked” Romo and the February 2024 killing of associate Luis Gaona.

Detectives found cocaine, paraphernalia and counterfeit $100 bills in Moore’s vehicle, and surveillance captured Lopez moving through the stairwell that night, though the shooting itself was not recorded. Lopez was arrested the following day, and Judge David Walgren ruled there is enough evidence for a trial on murder, attempted murder and firearms charges; Lopez has entered a not-guilty plea. The case underscores the ongoing racially tinged turf war between Blythe Street and the Original Valley Gangster Crips in the area.