On February 25, 2018, David Sandoval, a 44-year-old male of Hispanic / Latino ethnicity from Phoenix, Arizona, was fatally shot in the parking lot outside T&A Cabaret, a strip club on South Central Avenue in south Phoenix. News reports and later case summaries indicate that the violence unfolded in the very early hours of Sunday morning, around 2 a.m., after a night out at the club.
He was a father of five, described by family in an online fundraiser as a beloved son, brother, uncle and cousin whose life was “taken by senseless violence.”
According to police accounts, the incident began when a fight broke out inside T&A Cabaret near last call. Club security intervened and removed several people from the building. Shortly afterward, in the parking lot just outside the club near Central Avenue and Elwood Street, a man pulled out a handgun and fired multiple shots. Three people were hit: Sandoval, another man who was critically wounded but later stabilized, and a woman who sustained a more minor injury. Sandoval was transported to a nearby hospital, where he died of his injuries. Family members later said he had been trying to help break up the altercation when he was shot, emphasizing that he was attempting to defuse the conflict rather than escalate it.
Initial reporting from local outlets described the shooter as a Black man in his 20s or 30s, wearing a green sweatshirt and blue jeans. Witnesses told police that the gunman fled the scene immediately after firing, leaving the parking lot before officers arrived. The shooting, which took place only a short distance from a Phoenix police substation, prompted a major response and a public appeal for information, with investigators asking anyone who recognized the suspect or knew his whereabouts to contact Phoenix police or Silent Witness.
In the months that followed, detectives worked with security footage and witness statements to identify the gunman. Court records from the Arizona Court of Appeals later revealed that investigators focused on a man named Justin Wheaton, who had been at T&A Cabaret that night with several friends. According to the appellate decision, two club employees picked Wheaton out as the shooter after reviewing surveillance video, and a Phoenix detective confirmed the identification from a still image. A search of his social media accounts turned up incriminating messages in which he acknowledged being wanted in connection with a homicide and claimed he was “on the run” for something that would keep him from ever seeing “the light of day again.” Wheaton left Arizona after the shooting and was arrested months later in Shelby County, Tennessee, before being extradited back to Maricopa County to face charges.
Prosecutors charged Wheaton with second-degree murder for killing one patron, multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon for wounding two others and endangering several club employees, and a count of discharging a firearm at a structure. After an eight-day jury trial that included testimony from officers, detectives, medical personnel, club staff and patrons, he was found guilty on all counts. In 2019, the trial court sentenced him to an aggregate 40-year prison term, and in 2021 the Arizona Court of Appeals affirmed his convictions, modifying only a technical detail regarding presentence incarceration credit. Public records and news coverage do not indicate that any additional suspects were ever charged, and the appellate opinion portrays the case as a single-shooter incident, with Wheaton held solely responsible for the gunfire that killed Sandoval and injured the two other victims.
