Killed While Landscaping in Arizona, Manuel Vega López’s Death Now Raises Alarming Questions About Anti-Latino Bias

Manuel Vega López built his home not in elegance but in simplicity and contentment. He died in someone else’s yard.

The 51-year-old Latino father and landscaper from San Juan Mixtepec, Oaxaca, Mexico was shot and killed while trimming greenery in a residential area in Arizona, around 4:30 p.m. on Monday, May 19. His family, still unable to retrieve his body, is calling for justice and financial support to bring him home to be buried in Oaxaca.

Local coverage confirmed police cordoned off the scene quickly after emergency calls reported a shooting. Officers arrived to find Manuel gravely wounded on the ground. He was pronounced dead shortly after.

In Arizona’s punishing heat, Manuel was simply doing his job. He was earning a living the way he always had: with his hands, his silence, and an ethic passed from generations that never expected much in return.

What happened that day has shaken his family to its core. But what’s more unbearable to them is the silence that has followed.

The Family of Manuel Vega López Is Left to Carry the Weight

His daughter, Manuelita Vega, describes him as the anchor of their household.

“As a father, he worked with all his strength in all the ways he could to earn the income and gave his family all the support he could,” she wrote in a GoFundMe post that now functions as a digital memorial, a public plea, and a call for justice. “He had struggles and difficulties facing all the challenges in life but he became courageous to overcome them… He was the strength of the home he built.”

The family he supported still hasn’t recovered his body as of the writing of this article. His wife, who suffers from kidney failure and undergoes dialysis every other day, depended on Manuel for more than emotional support. He was her mobility, her driver, her guide through the slow erosion of her eyesight brought on by diabetes. Their youngest son, now battling leukemia and the lasting damage from chemotherapy, also depended on his father. The household was stretched thin. Manuel held it together.

They are now appealing for financial support to cover the cost of transporting his body back to Oaxaca and to pay for legal counsel.

“We are asking for financial support not only [for] legal purposes but in hopes to receive justice for my father and also to take my father back home,” his daughter continued. “Any contribution will help us tremendously… It means more than we can express and will help us honor Manuel Vega-Lopez[’s] memory with love, dignity, and strength.”

A Shooter Identified

In the days since the killing, a grim portrait of that afternoon has begun to emerge.

Authorities have identified the shooter as 28-year-old Wyatt Ford, who now faces a charge of second-degree murder. According to court documents, Ford’s wife had called the police just before the shooting to report that her husband was confronting a man they believed had previously vandalized a trailer on the property. The wife said she had recognized the victim’s truck from a few nights prior and noted her husband was armed with a concealed weapon.

A neighbor later reported seeing the victim “shot in the throat” and lying on the ground.

Ford and his wife were renting the home and preparing to move out of state. Days before the shooting, the couple discovered damage to their trailer. They had been told by a neighbor that a man — later confirmed to be Manuel — had been outside the home around that time.

What neither Ford nor his wife apparently recalled in that moment of confrontation was a text from the landlord. According to the police report, the landlord had contacted Manuel to trim the trees in the yard after receiving a notice from the Town of Gilbert. The landlord had shared this with Ford in a group chat. Ford responded to that message. The photo exchanges between the landlord and Manuel corroborate that the landscaping appointment had been arranged in advance.

Manuel had arrived as scheduled. He had the tools. He had the job. He had no weapon.

Police later found his landscaping truck parked nearby, filled with tools. A pole saw, used to trim trees, lay in the landscaping rocks beside him. What officers did not find on or near him was any firearm. In contrast, a black Glock semi-automatic pistol and four spent cartridges were found near where Ford stood.

Ford was booked into the Maricopa County Jail. As of now, no court date has been announced.

Allegations of Racial Bias Surface

What remains unsaid by local authorities is what weighs heavily on the minds of those who knew Manuel. The silence, some say, is not incidental.

Several people within the migrant rights community have voiced concern that the case has been handled with indifference due to Manuel’s heritage. Some, cautiously and with restraint, call it racially motivated. They point to the climate that surrounds Latino immigrants — a climate shaped by suspicion, xenophobia, and the relentless narrative that frames brown workers as disposable.

It is heartbreaking that a Latino migrant can die while landscaping a stranger’s lawn and still be left waiting to be buried, his family left to organize fundraisers while they grieve.

No statement has been issued by the residents of the home where Manuel was killed. None has come from the state.

The Dirección de Migración Oaxaqueña told El Universal that no one from Manuel’s family had yet contacted them, though community members argue the burden of outreach shouldn’t rest solely on the grieving.

The family’s GoFundMe, updated several times, reflects the urgency and weight of their grief.

“This breaks all of our hearts,” his daughter wrote. “My dad will be dearly missed by all… We will not stop until justice is served.”

The Price of Being Invisible

Manuel’s story echoes far beyond the boundaries of his neighborhood or the streets he landscaped. It speaks to a wider, more painful truth.

In the daily labor of US economy, Latinos like Manuel Vega López are essential but invisible. They cut lawns, lay tile, pour concrete, and are often remembered only in death. Even then, only if someone insists on remembering them.

He did not die in a war zone. But his death has the cold silence of one. A life stripped from his family while holding garden shears. A man who gave everything he had while asking for very little. He made homes beautiful for people he never knew. He was killed in front of one.

His family remains in limbo, waiting to bring him home.

“Vamos todos unidos con Manuel hoy por mí mañana por ti,” his daughter wrote.

The Latino community will not stop until justice is served.