A day of celebration quickly took a dark turn when a groom was shot in the head by an armed robber during a backyard wedding reception in Missouri.
Manuel Gonzalez and Dulce Gonzalez have been together for more than a decade and were about 50 in the backyard of their St. Louis home on Friday, Fox 2 Now The parents of two children were married in an intimate ceremony held by close friends and family.
Just before 1 a.m. Saturday, the St. Louis Police Department responded to a report of a shooting at a home in Holland Township.
Witnesses told police two masked gunmen entered the party and demanded money from guests, police said.
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Manuel Gonzalez is in critical condition after being shot by an armed robber during a backyard wedding. (Support Dulce’s family through crisis/GoFundMe)
As one of the men searched the guests’ pockets, an armed man stood behind the groom and pointed a gun at him, police said.
At one point, shots were fired and Manuel was shot in the head, police said.
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The two suspects fled on foot. They did not steal anything from the victims.
“They took nothing, but they took everything from us,” Yaribeth Pena, the bride’s sister, told Fox 2 Now.
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Manuel was taken to the hospital and is currently in critical condition.
“We need to pray that he gets through this,” the family said in a post dedicated to the couple on a GoFundMe page.
Family members told Fox 2 on Sunday that detectives have not collected all the evidence or interviewed all witnesses.
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“He was a great father and husband to my sister. He was a hard worker,” Pena said. “He’s just an all-around good guy, but I don’t know, he doesn’t deserve this.”
No arrests have been made so far.
