Four years ago, a shooter with white supremacist and misogynistic ideals murdered five people in a premeditated attack in Denver and Lakewood. Among those killed was respected body modification artist Alicia Cardenas of Sol Tribe Tattoo & Piercing.
Armando Lopez, friend and client of Cardenas, barely escaped the violence that day, Dec. 27, 2021. He left Sol Tribe less than an hour before the attack and has been asking himself “what if” ever since.
What if he had been there? What if he could have saved Cardenas and others involved in the attack?
Four years later, “what if” became a reality. Faced with a horrific hit-and-run crash on Broadway this month, Armando Lopez used lifesaving skills he’d learned in the wake of the Sol Tribe shooting — and he saved a man’s life.
The day that changed everything
On the day of the shooting in 2021, Cardenas was at Sol Tribe for work on a full arm-sleeve tattoo. The tattoo included Mesoamerican art and a star chart that Cardenas drew up especially for Lopez.
“She was really able to help me get in touch with a part of myself that I had not explored,” he said. “She treated me like I was a lost child and she was able to provide me resources and guidance in ways that no one else in my life has ever been able to do before or since.”
The tattoo was a reflection of her mentorship, filled with Indigenous symbology. But it took many hours to bring to life, and Cardenas saw that Lopez was worn down from the pain.
“She didn't want to tattoo me like that,” he said. “So she let me go.”
Approximately 30 minutes later, Cardenas was murdered by a man who had written fictional stories fantasizing about the attack before acting out his fantasy. He specifically targeted her for her work to challenge racism and cultural appropriation in the body modification world.
The gunman also murdered Alyssa Gunn-Maldonado at Sol Tribe and injured her husband, Jimmy Maldonado, before continuing a rampage across the metro that left three others dead before the gunman was confronted and killed by a Lakewood police officer, Ashley Ferris.
The three other people killed in the 2021 shooting were hotel clerk Sarah Steck, tattoo artist Danny Scofield and Michael Swinyard. Most of the victims had prior connections to the killer.
“I wish I could have been there,” Lopez said. “I wish I would've been there to help or to do something.”
As he grieved, he took a “Stop the Bleed” class to learn how to respond in the event of another mass shooting or emergency. He bought an “IFAK,” or individual first aid kit. He didn’t want to feel helpless again.
“I think taking responsibility for your community is something that is sorely underrated,” he said. It was a mindset he adopted, at least in part, from Cardenas.
A lifesaving act that would make his mentor proud
On Saturday, March 1, Armando Lopez was playing a show with his band, Brothers of Brass, at Coco Bongos Night Club on South Broadway.
As he was packing up his gear at the end of the set, around 10:20 p.m., his bandmate called his attention to an incident outside the club.
“After looking and trying to kind of discern what was going on, I saw [a motorcyclist] on the ground,” he recalled. “I could see his leg was pretty much severed…And then from there I saw him bleeding at a pretty lethal rate.”
Lopez turned to his bandmate, saying, “‘That's too much blood.’”
Lopez hustled to his car to grab his IFAK kit, a go-bag of medical supplies used to treat trauma and blood loss.
He applied a tourniquet and tried to keep the man from bleeding out until the paramedics arrived. He was putting his first responder skills to work — just as he hoped he’d be able to if faced with an emergency.
“[The motorist] was still fully conscious and in quite a bit of agony,” Lopez said. “He was just saying, ‘My leg is gone, my leg is gone.’ And all I could tell him was that I was stabilizing him, I was stopping his bleeding and I was stabilizing him so he would survive to get to the hospital.”
At first, Lopez was unsure if he had helped the man. But in the days following the crash, Lopez was contacted by a sergeant from DPD and the victim’s family.
“His family was telling me what the hospital told him — and the consensus is that he would've died if I hadn't done that. So once I got that clarity or affirmation, it definitely did uplift me,” he said.
Friends and community members have celebrated Lopez on social media.
Erika Righter, owner of Hope Tank, a longtime neighbor of the former Sol Tribe space on South Broadway, wrote, “[Cardenas] would be soooo proud!”
But Lopez isn’t grandstanding in the spotlight. “I want to use the opportunity to advocate for this type of education,” he said of his “Stop the Bleed” course.
“It encourages folks to get that kind of training to respond to the growing mass shooting threat that exists in this country,” he continued.
“I have a strong belief that if we are willing to show up for each other and take responsibility for each other,” he said, “there's no downside to doing that.”
On the lookout for a distinct, green truck
Lopez is relieved to know his aid saved the motorcyclist’s life. But he’s still haunted by the circumstances of the crash.
“[I’ve been] sitting in the darkness of that experience — of how someone could do this and run away and abdicate responsibility,” he said.
Denver police are still investigating. They are searching for a neon green pickup truck with black stripes on the hood, and any witnesses with information about the crash.
The incident took place near 10:20 p.m. on South Broadway in Denver between East Iowa Avenue and East Florida Avenue on Saturday, March 1.
Tips should be reported to Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.
