PAGE 2 NEWS / SEPT. 15, 2008
Remembering Edgar // STEPHENNICHOLS
//Photo Coutesy of MILLYROQUE
“Somebody shot Edgar in the heart.” Juan Lozania couldn’t believe what his daughter was telling him on the phone. He closed El Texano, his small auto shop on Osage Road in Kansas City, KS and hurried to the Inner City Oil Co. where the shooting had happened. “I didn’t know he was in the hospital or anywhere,” Lozania said. “I wanted to go there and see what happened.” He arrived only to discover that his step-son, junior Edgar Lozania-Florez, had been rushed to the hospital, but there was nothing they could do to save him from the bullet wounds to the chest. Lozania didn’t understand. He couldn’t. “That day he went by here, but an hour before that happened,” Lozania said. “He was with one of his friends. They rolled by and he called me, yelled at me, happy. The next hour, he was shot.” He didn’t know the details and even now, he’s still figuring them out. According to the Kansas City, Kansas
JUNIOR Edgar Lozania-Flores during a Worlds of Fun visit. LozaniaFlores died after being shot at a Wyandotte gas station Sept. 2.
police department report, the shooting was an act of juvenile gang violence. The Wyandotte County district attorney’s office has charged 15-year-old Omar Hernandez with first-degree murder and criminal possession of a fire-arm. The police are still searching for 19-year-old Nestor J. Ardon in connection with the murder. Edgar was a recent transfer student from J.C. Harmon High School. He spent only two weeks at East. *** Sophomore Breana Gray was one of his first friends to hear the news. She had grown close to Edgar after he arrived at East. “He asked me like everyday to be his girlfriend,” Gray said. “He always told me ‘I’ll do everything for you,’ stuff like that. He would text me…he didn’t even have a phone, he’d text me on other people’s phones just to see how I was doing.” He liked Breana and he did everything to be near her. He walked her to classes, put his arm around her and stored his books in her locker. Two weeks ago, Gray broke up with her boyfriend and Edgar was right there, holding her hand, asking if she would be his girl now. She said it hadn’t even been 24 hours since the break-up. He said he could wait ‘til the end of the day. That Friday, Breana told Edgar that she wouldn’t be his girl. He was angry and went to the nurse’s office saying he was sick, wanting to go home. He was supposed to be picked up. “Instead of leaving right then, he waited after class and took me out to lunch,” Gray said. “We were sitting with all my friends. He sat with me and he grabbed my hand under the table and tried to hold it… I kind of pushed him away. That was the last time I saw him.” That’s not the last time she heard from
Junior, fatally shot in a Wyandotte gas station Sept. 2, is remembered by his family and close friends
him though. He was still texting her Tuesday afternoon. “You know that I want to be with you. I’ll do everything for you. I won’t do you wrong.” The last words she ever read. “I need you Breana.” She didn’t respond. He sent it again during class. “I need you Breana.” *** Edgar saw East as an opportunity to work to be somebody according to his step-dad. “He wanted to be in your guy’s school so badly,” Lozania said. “He used to tell me that he didn’t get along too good [at Harmon].” Harmon is where most of his friends went to school and Edgar’s ex-girlfriend, East junior Milly Roque, says most of them were in gangs. “He wasn’t in [the gang], but he represented it,” Roque said. “To get in a gang, basically you have to do something to get in the gang. [His friends] told me he wasn’t in it.” A group even showed up at his funeral on Saturday morning at Christ the King church, where they placed a blue bandanna, sunglasses and a black Kansas City Royals cap on his still chest. Lozania wanted to know the truth. “I asked them, ‘Hey, was he a part of you guys? They told me ‘No, he wasn’t a part of us. He wanted to be a part of us.’ I don’t know. I don’t doubt he hung out with some of the guys that are in the gangs that are real bad…” It was something that Gray and would joke about during school, flashing each other rival gang signs and then laughing afterwards. But after his death, she opened her locker and found the books he had left there. She returned most of them to the of-
fice, but kept his binder that was covered in gang signs he had drawn. “I knew he was serious about his gang,” Gray said, “but I didn’t know he was dead serious.” But Edgar wanted more. He wanted to help his dad and stay in school. “One day he told me ‘You know, I want to be somebody dad, because I want to get you out of the shop. I don’t want to see you work all the time,” Lozania said. “He said, ‘Yep, I’m going to work for that.” *** The funeral came on a foggy morning Sept. 6 at Christ the King Church. The casket was open and friends and family cried near his body. His mother, Andrea, would not get out of the car. Roque went out to get her. “I walked her to the funeral and everything,” Roque said. “She told me ‘He’s just asleep, he’s just asleep.” The Mass began. The worst part for Milly wasn’t walking Andrea to the funeral or even seeing Edgar’s body. “What hit me the most was that he had a little cousin that was like four who was behind who was just screaming ‘God why did you take him? Why did you take him? He didn’t deserve to die. Why did they kill him?” That’s something the whole family is still asking themselves. No matter what charges are filed or what convictions are reached, Lozania knows they won’t bring Edgar back. “It would be a lot different if he was sick or something,” Lozania said. “That prepares you a little bit more for something like that. But when somebody takes away one of the members of your family with no reasons in one second…I feel like I want to go with him.”
East graduates return to celebrate Spirit Week for the 50th aniversary // TAYLORHAVILAND
After graduating 37 years ago, Pep Club officer Alice Robinson Levy will return to East to be a part of the Lancer Day tradition she helped create. This year's celebration will bring back memories for her and many alumni attending who will celebrate the 50th anniversary of East. This year they will join other alum's to build a 70s themed float for the anniversary parade, dressing as they did as students at East. Levi described fashions as "bobby socks and knee socks, really short skirts, hair in pig tails with colored ribbons." She remembers her husband Peter being sent home for wearing a jean jacket. The Levys will be a part of the Lancer day celebrations along with many of the 2500 Lancer alums invited to return to celebrate half a century of excellence. According to PTA President Beth Fowler, Lancer Day will be something spectacular, and this year alums are encouraged to participate. On Oct. 17 the celebration will include a 50th Anniversary Parade, Alumni Open House, and Tailgate at the 50-year East-North football rivalry.
This year’s Lancer Day Parade will have more blue, black and white than ever with floats gliding down Mission Road into the Lancer Village for a giant all school/ community pep rally. " We had to talk to store owners in the shopping center because we don't know if everyone can fit," athletic director Jim Ricker s aid. The most floats East has had in the past was around 30, but this year East has over 50 registered floats before the paperwork was even sent out. The parade kicks off from East at 1 p.m. and ends at the Village shopping center with the pep rally. Following the parade, history will be revealed at our community open house at the school at 3 p.m., hosted by the PTA. On display will be artifacts dating back to the first years of East, and special items since then. Historical pamphlets written by Pep Club President Nick Paris will be given away to teach about East's history from 1959 to the present. To help us remember our school, limited edition 50th anniversary ornaments and cookbooks will be sold that benefit The East Fund. Looking to the future,
tours will be held showing the community East and how it is changing. That evening’s tailgate will kick off the commemoration of the first East- North football game 50 years ago. East will have one of its longest tailgates ever beginning at 5 p.m. with food served by Two Guys and a Grill. At 5:30 pm the gates will open allowing fans to enter North stadium where alums will remember that first thrilling victory against the school they had left. Original players will be involved in this years coin toss to commemorate the age-old rivalry that is the Nut Cup. Ricker made sure that half time was still devoted to the homecoming court. “Even with all of the Alumni returning this is still about the kids, it is still your homecoming game and we do not want to take away from that." A special 50th anniversary committee has organized all of these activities, led by 50-year alum Dick Heimovics, volunteer Beth Fowler, principal Dr. Krawitz, athletic director Coach Ricker, the PTA and other alumni. For more contact information or to participate visit www. SME50.com or contact Beth Fowler.