Volunteers honor legacy of slain father, husband: 'Loving like Lou'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- They called it Loving like Lou. The family of a man shot and killed after searching for his son's stolen truck last month honored his legacy by continuing the community service that was so much a part of Louis Erebia's life.

From leveling the fields to mowing them and cleaning them, volunteers, friends, and family of Louis Erebia spent Saturday at the North Shore Little League baseball park. It was not a fundraiser or a protest, but a way to honor Erebia through action.

"This is where we feel his presence because this is where he gave back," said his sister-in-law, Amber Burrough. "For the last two decades, even after his kids stopped playing, he served the community by working on these fields. He made sure it was good for the next season, so the kids of our community were ready to play on clean fields, and so today we all came out in his honor to make sure we continue Louis' legacy."

Erebia, a 56-year-old father of five, died six weeks ago. Erebia's son reported being carjacked at gunpoint. Investigators say Erebia was able to track the stolen truck using GPS. After a pursuit with the suspects that ended in a crash, Erebia was shot and killed.

"As hard as this is, we do feel the love and the support from the community," Erebia's wife Amanda told ABC13, "and I would say it's so hard, the grieving. It's harder every day, the longer he's absent from us. But he loved us so much that the grieving is so strong."

London Hogan, Sr., 37, is charged with murder, but Erebia's family and victim advocates question why Hogan was even free at the time of the shooting.

Court records showed Hogan was on probation for a previous violent crime and had already violated the terms of that probation.

This weekend's community effort, though, was not about the suspect or the crime. Erebia's family said it was about finding beauty in the ashes and serving one's community, as Louis did.

"I think if everybody would do a little more," Amanda Erebia said, "if everybody would do a little, nobody would have to do a lot, and Louis lived by that. He was so giving and always loving. And he was always here."

As of Saturday, July 18, London Hogan Sr. remained in the Harris County Jail without bond.