In the early hours of February 18, 2026, a night out at a San Antonio hookah lounge turned into a scene of tragedy, claiming the life of 27-year-old Derek Dashaun Brown. A male with roots in Panamá, Brown was at the Myst Hookah + Ultra Lounge on the city's far North Side when violence erupted. The incident began with an altercation inside the establishment, leading to a man and a woman being removed by security personnel.
A short time after being escorted out, a car matching the
description of one the ejected pair entered drove by the lounge. Witnesses reported that as the vehicle passed the outdoor patio area, a passenger opened fire into the crowd. Brown was struck by the gunfire, sustaining a fatal gunshot wound to the chest. A second man, Kyung Lee, 50, was also fatally shot during the incident. Emergency services arrived to find both men deceased at the scene. Friends and coworkers remembered Brown, who had worked at a local hospital for about a year, as a true friend with a gift for lifting people's spirits and bringing positivity wherever he went.
The San Antonio Police Department quickly launched an intensive investigation, treating the case as a capital murder. Within two days, authorities announced the arrests of two suspects, Joseph Anthony Amador, 34, and Lauren Tayler Machado-Juarez, 35. Investigators utilized surveillance footage which captured the suspects leaving the bar and getting into a gold Ford Fusion. The footage then showed the vehicle returning to the scene, where the shooting occurred.
Following the identification of the vehicle, police conducted covert surveillance on an apartment associated with Amador. When the two suspects left the apartment and got into the same Ford Fusion, officers initiated a traffic stop and took them into custody. At the time of their arrest, both Amador and Machado-Juarez had outstanding warrants for unrelated charges. A search of the vehicle and Amador's apartment uncovered several firearms. Both suspects admitted to having been at the lounge on the morning of the shooting. They were subsequently charged with capital murder of multiple persons and are being held at the Bexar County jail.
