#OTD on May 3, 1909 Ranger Levi Davis killed Severo Lopez in Rio Grande City. Lopez and several friends had been enjoying a festive dinner when Davis and 2 other Rangers ended the festivities with gunfire.
Ranger authorities had augmented the Ranger presence in the Valley after the murder of Judge Stanley Welch in 1906. Welch presided over the contentious 1904 murder trial of Gregorio Cortez. A jury acquitted Cortez of killing Karnes County Sheriff W.T. “Brack” Morris in 1901.
The tension in the region over these events and the increased number of Rangers resulted in a great deal of violence and killing, usually of Mexican-origin people at the hands of Rangers. Severo Lopez was one of those victims.
Lopez and some friends had gathered at a Rio Grande City restaurant to enjoy a farewell dinner with a friend who was departing for Falfurrias. Davis and 2 other Rangers mistook the party for a fight. They tried to disperse the revelers by pushing the men with their shotguns.
According to several reports, Lopez disliked being accosted by Davis and pushed his shotgun away. Davis shot him at point blank range in the stomach. Lopez was not armed and died almost instantly.
Authorities arrested Davis for killing Lopez. The Rangers quickly crafted a story of self-defense that would exonerate him. Captain Frank Johnson, Davis’s superior, explained in a report that the two men had been in a scuffle and Lopez had attempted to wrestle the shotgun away from Davis.
Johnson further claimed that Davis had seen something shiny in Lopez’s pocket. He evidently believed this object was a pistol. It turned out to be a flask.
Ranger Davis’s trial began in late June 1909. It ended in early July with an acquittal. Davis returned to active duty shortly thereafter. His killing of Severo Lopez was another in a long line of “object in waistband” type police killings that are all too common today.
This thread is a part of the #OTD in Ranger history campaign that @Refusing2Forget is running this year. Follow this twitter handle or https://refusingtoforget.org/ranger-bicentennial-project/, and visit our website https://refusingtoforget.org to learn more.
The key source for this entry is @HistoryBrian’s Borders of Violence and Justice
Refusing to Forget members are @ccarmonawriter @carmona2208 @acerift @soniahistoria @BenjaminHJohns1 @LeahLochoa @MonicaMnzMtz and @Alacranita, another co-founder is @GonzalesT956
@emmpask @sdcroll @HistoryBrian @LorienTinuviel @hangryhistorian, @ddsanchez432, @elprofeml, and @littlejohnjeff are other scholars working on this project.
