Murder in Providence: One Son Saved, the Other Lost
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Andy Luna, 19, was a student at the Met School and barbershop worker who had big dreams.
One day, he wanted to become an architect and design skyscrapers.
On June 16, 2010 he was shot to death on Elmwood Avenue.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST“The house is not the same,” said Olivares Luna, an older brother in his 30s, sitting with his parents and brothers in the family’s Pearl Street home. “It feels empty without Andy.”
Luna was a graffiti artist who boxed at the Davey Lopes Recreation Center. He was a fan of rap music and had his own group. “He liked to call it Harlem,” said his younger brother, Javier Luna, a ninth grader at Central High School. The soon-to-be father made a point of buying diapers whenever he went shopping, according to his father, Leandro Luna.
“He was a good son,” said his mother, Lucila Luna.
In the late 1980s, Lucila immigrated to the United States. She came seeking a better life for her family. A few years later, Leandro followed suit.
Now family members are questioning that decision. “I want to leave here because I don’t like the violence and the gangs,” Olivares said. He wants the family to move to Pennsylvania or New York.
“It gets bad every day,” added Fabian Luna, 12, one of Andy's younger brothers.
The year before his brother Andy Luna was shot, a younger brother was shot seven times in a parking lot about a block away from the family’s South Side home. He survived the shooting, but, to get him to a safer place, the family says they sent him to live with a relative in the Dominican Republic.
The younger brother flew out on June 6, 2010.
Ten days later, Andy Luna was fatally shot.
The pain of losing him has yet to fade. Olivares shows an iPhone video of Andy Luna, laughing and smiling shirtless on the living room coach, close to the date of the shooting. His mother digs through a box of memorabilia, pulling out a copy of his kindergarten graduation diploma and a yearbook photo of Andy in the second grade.
“He was a good kid,” she said.
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