Within eight months of meeting, Jennifer Garcia and Charlie Borbon-Lopez were dead, gunned down near a Northeast Portland park in a shooting that remains unsolved.
Garcia’s friends and family describe her as warm and funny. They recalled her steady friendship and loyalty. Her sister said she worried about Garcia’s relationship with Borbon-Lopez because of his past encounters with the law.
FOR MORE ON THE PEOPLE WHO DIED, NEW DETAILS OF CASES, go to “Portland Homicides: Under the Gun”
Borbon-Lopez’s mother remembered her son as caring and devoted to her. She said she had her own worries about the couple and whether Garcia’s work as a dancer at a Portland club contributed to their deaths.
Borbon-Lopez and Garcia were killed on the night of March 1 near KĘ°unamokwst Park in the 5200 block of Northeast Alberta Street. Garcia died at the scene. She was 21. Borbon-Lopez died at the hospital. He was 20.
A small memorial stands in the area where Jennifer Garcia and Charlie Borbon-Lopez were fatally shot on March 1. The area is near KĘ°unamokwst Park in the 5200 block of Northeast Alberta Street. Garcia died at the scene. She was 21. Borbon-Lopez died at the hospital. He was 20. Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian
They are among 12 people killed this year in five separate shootings -- an unusual spate of four double homicides and one quadruple homicide. Police said so many multiple killings is a sign of the city’s escalating gun violence, which has pushed the number of people killed in homicides this year to 68 as of Oct. 1 -- near the record of 70 in 1987.
Portland police have released few details about the shooting of Garcia and Borbon-Lopez. They have made no arrests.
The young couple’s families said they have heard little from investigators.
“We deserve to know who did this disgusting thing,” said Garcia’s older sister, McKenna Dooley. “They deserve to be literally in hell for this.”
Over the summer, Borbon-Lopez’s mother Isabel Lopez Batierra led a small demonstration at Portland City Hall to bring attention to the unsolved case, now seven months old.
“Police, they tell me they don’t know,” Lopez Batierra said. “They don’t have any clues. They don’t tell me anything.”
She doesn’t want investigators to forget her son.
“I do continue to tell them that we need justice,” she said.
Garcia lived in Vancouver, where she attended Fort Vancouver High School. Her parents were divorced and she lived with her mother, Dooley said.
Garcia was close to her parents and they are shattered by grief, Dooley said.
“She was a super big daddy’s girl,” said Ja’Vonne Williams, 21, who met Jennifer Garcia when the two were in middle school. “They talked every day, literally every day.” Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian
“She was a super big daddy’s girl,” said Ja’Vonne Williams, 21, who met Garcia when the two were in middle school. “They talked every day, literally every day.”
She had many friends and acquaintances, Williams said, so it wasn’t a surprise that she would have been in Portland.
Those who knew Garcia were stunned by her death.
“She is such a light,” Williams said. “She walks into a room and could brighten your day.”
Dooley said she and Garcia spent a lot of time together last summer, a period she now considers a gift.
“We were each other’s everything,” McKenna Dooley said of her sister, Jennifer Garcia. “She was the person that I leaned on for support with everything. She was always there for me.” Courtesy of McKenna Dooley
“We were each other’s everything,” she said. “She was the person that I leaned on for support with everything. She was always there for me.”
Dooley saw “major red flags” in her sister’s relationship with Borbon-Lopez because of criminal charges he previously faced, she said.
Court records show Borbon-Lopez was accused of assault and robbery in 2017. The case was later dismissed, according to court records.
Last year, he was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a loaded firearm in a public place and first-degree theft. In that case, court records show police recovered a stolen gun from Borbon-Lopez during a traffic stop.
His mother said she knew of his encounters with police. She said he did well on probation and he was not aware that a stolen gun was in his car at the time he was stopped by police.
She said she worried about her son “like any mother.” She said he struggled with depression and anxiety and had sought mental health treatment.
She said Garcia confided to her that “there were people who were harassing Charlie and threatening him days before he was killed,” but Garcia provided few other details.
Garcia had no criminal record, court documents show. Her sister said Garcia kept quiet about her work as a dancer.
“He said he would protect her and do all these things for her,” Dooley said. “If she didn’t go with him that night, she would still be alive today. That’s what breaks my heart.”
In her Southeast Portland apartment, Lopez Batierra has arranged a makeshift shrine to her son. The young man beams from poster-sized photos on the wall.
Lopez Batierra has placed candles near the photos and mementos, which include prints of her son’s hand that were taken when died at the hospital.
She said her son graduated from Franklin High School in 2019. The school included a tribute to Borbon-Lopez from Principal Chris Frazier in its 2020-2021 yearbook.
Charlie Borbon-Lopez's mother said her son graduated from Franklin High School in 2019. The school included a tribute to Borbon-Lopez from Principal Chris Frazier in its 2020-2021 yearbook. Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian
“Charlie had a brilliant mind,” he wrote in the message, and “wore his heart on his sleeve.”
“He was loved by a lot of people,” said Lopez Batierra, whose family is from Tijuana, Mexico, and who spoke through a Spanish interpreter. “He had a lot of friends.”
Lopez Batierra said her son told her he was in love with Garcia. Though his things remained at his mother’s house, he spent most of his time with Garcia, she said.
She said Borbon-Lopez was a student at Portland Community College, where he studied business, but the coronavirus pandemic interrupted his schooling. His sister said he worked as a construction flagger.
Lopez Batierra said the trauma of losing her son has clouded her memories. She wept as she spoke of him. His death, she said, “just ripped my heart apart.”
“He was always worrying about me,” she said. “He always wanted to do things for me so that I would be good and since he left, my life is over. I don’t have a life anymore.”
Lopez Batierra saved his texts. In one of his final messages to his mother, he typed: “Goodnight momma love you.”
-- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie
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