Since Luis Manuel Arguello-Inglis, 19, was shot and killed at Dolores Park on the night of June 5, his family and friends have been gathering there almost every day. They spread blankets out on the grass, put on music that reminds them of him, and tend his altar — four benches near 20th Street covered in flowers, photographs and tributes. They fill glass jars with water for the flowers, straighten photographs, light candles and burn copal.
As the afternoon passes, Arguello-Inglis’ friends chat quietly, looking out at the skyline of the city. Aside from the wind and fog that occasionally blow in, knocking over vases of flowers and picture frames, it is sunny and lovely, a perfect postcard of San Francisco.
It was a view that Arguello-Inglis, “Lucho” to his friends, often enjoyed. He would spend time there with his friends, talking with them about everything and nothing as they took in the city. When he and his girlfriend, fellow Lowell High graduate and college classmate, Mia Mora, were getting together, they would go on walks in the park, flirting and making plans to go to the movies or to each other’s houses. And, once they were dating, the park continued to be a favorite place.
At 10 p.m. on June 5, Arguello-Inglis was at Dolores Park when gunshots were fired. Police and medics found him suffering from multiple bullet wounds, but they were unable to save him, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The police are currently investigating Arguello-Inglis’ killing, and have yet to release any information about the potential identity or motivation of his killer.
Arguello-Inglis’ friends and family describe the 19-year-old as a tall and easygoing young man with a life-long interest in sports, taking on soccer, Muay Thai, and weightlifting with an intensity he also brought to his studies. He was a dependable friend and brother, and kind to those younger than himself.
When his older sister, Natalia Arguello-Inglis’, car broke down one New Year’s Eve in the middle of the Tenderloin, she immediately called her brother. He picked up, and soon he was on the scene. “Anything I needed, he would do it, and he would do it happily,” she said.
His friends recall him also helping them with their broken-down cars a few times — and much more.
“He would talk to me about my dad, because my dad passed away,” Sebastian Mederos said. “He gave me so many life tips, like how to be better with people around me and relationships.”
Arguello-Inglis was born a week late on Nov. 7, 2004, at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center. He was a big baby with large, chubby cheeks, his sister, who is eight years older than him, remembered.
He loved sports and started playing baseball — he pitched — early on. By the end of elementary school, he was on to soccer, playing on through high school, until his knees gave out.
“I can just picture him as I always saw him, just running out, the soccer ball under his arm,” said Matthew Hartford, the principal of Lakeshore Elementary School. “He was far more interested in having fun with his friends than being overly competitive or anything, as much of a serious soccer player as he was.”
Back in the classroom, Arguello-Inglis’ fifth-grade teacher, Anastasia Fusscas, said that some of her fondest memories of her former student were his interactions with his reading buddy, Chance, a first-grader.
“I just remember him sitting there with this little guy, and the two of them would sit and read, and just laugh and get going. He kept Chance focused,” she said. “He was a mentor for the little kids at our school.”
Arguello-Inglis made a similar impression on Mederos when he first met him while on a trip to a nearby lake. “He was always worried about someone else, or trying to get me food, because I was the youngest in the group,” Mederos said.
“He’d always look over whoever was younger than him,” Esau Aguilar agreed.
As Arguello-Inglis’ friends and family sat in the park, other memories came to the fore: his mother, Vicki Inglis, remembered him listening to CD recordings of Greek myths “over and over and over and over again,” play wrestling with him — “I wanted to show him physical love,” she said — and watching movies like “Apocalypto” with his stepfather, even if she thought they were inappropriate. “I would never say no to that kid,” Arguello-Inglis’ stepfather, Ulises Parada, said.
As Chucho, the family’s dog, wandered by the altar, weaving between the people gathered there, Inglis remembered Arguello-Inglis patiently teaching Chucho new tricks, like how to play dead. “He was easily the best trainer,” Inglis said. “There’s so many people that are stubborn and want to do it their way, and it doesn’t work.”
When Arguello-Inglis was 15, knee injuries made it difficult to continue playing soccer, so he dedicated himself to learning Muay Thai. He showed up almost every day at Rise Combat Sports for practice, and would stay after to help clean the gym in exchange for membership.
“As soon as he walked in here, you could tell that this kid was just driven,” said John Trevor, an amateur fighter who trained with Arguello-Inglis.
Even at home, Arguello-Inglis wanted to practice. “He was always wanting to tell me about Muay Thai and demonstrate on me, gently,” she said. Arguello-Inglis eventually got good enough at Muay Thai to participate in fights, winning all three that he entered.
After graduating from Lowell High School in May 2023 and starting college at San Jose State University, he took a break from Muay Thai and took up weightlifting. His girlfriend, Mora, was already weightlifting herself, and he soon became enamored with it.
Arguello-Inglis would work tirelessly to build muscle, Mora said. For instance, one of his first goals was to bench two plates, equivalent to 225 pounds. After four months, Arguello-Inglis hit that weight. Immediately, he shifted his goal to lifting three plates.
“He didn’t just speak about it, ‘Oh, I want to do this,’” Mora said. “He worked hard to get to that point.”
And he tailored his diet to weightlifting. “Sometimes he would put eggs in milk just to get more protein,” Mora said. “It was nasty, but it was just Luis.”
In college, Arguello-Inglis brought his interest in athletics and the body to the classroom. He was fascinated by his anatomy class and became a certified EMT, with the goal of eventually being a firefighter.
Mora remembers that he would wake up early on weekends to go to the EMT classes, which lasted almost all day. “He would come home and tell me, ‘Oh, I learned this, I do that,’” she said. “He would practice doing the vital signs on me.”
His friends and family shared many memories of him, but some of their fondest were just of being together and talking.
“He’s so quiet, but if you know him and you’re comfortable with him, he talks so much,” his sister Natalia Arguello-Inglis said, slipping into the present tense.
During these hangouts with his friends, they would often end up at the exact benches where his altar now sits, and where they keep returning to. They are hoping that, eventually, there can be some kind of permanent marker for him there.
“I’m still with him every time I’m here,” his friend Noah Kim said. “I feel like his spirit just lingers here.”
The San Francisco Police Department is encouraging people who know anything about Arguello-Inglis’ death to call the SFPD anonymous tip line (415-575-4444).
Rest in Peace mijo🙏🙏🙏
A damn shame. My thoughts go to his sister and family. I’m sure right now it doesn’t feel like it, but you’ll be ok. He’s ok. Just cowardly the way they did him. Rest in peace kid.