In the early hours of Sunday, October 29, 2023, a festive Halloween party at the Central Station Bar and Grill in Dodge City, Kansas, turned into a scene of violence that claimed the life of 29-year-old Antonio Alberto Cabrera. The Hispanic male was one of two fatalities in a shooting that erupted following an altercation at the establishment located on Wyatt Earp Boulevard.
The incident began at approximately 1:12 a.m.
when emergency services received multiple 911 calls reporting gunfire at the bar. Upon their arrival, officers from the Dodge City Police Department and deputies from the Ford County Sheriff's Office discovered four men suffering from gunshot wounds. Preliminary investigations by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation suggest that an argument escalated, leading a suspect to open fire. Antonio A. Cabrera was pronounced dead at the scene.
A second victim, 28-year-old Abraham Morales-Santos, was transported to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Two other men were also wounded in the shooting. A 40-year-old man was flown to a Wichita hospital with life-threatening injuries, his condition later stabilizing, while a 27-year-old man was treated for his injuries and subsequently released.
The suspect in the deadly shooting was identified as 36-year-old Ricardo Johary Cadena-Garcia of Dodge City. After the shooting, Cadena-Garcia fled the scene, prompting a multi-agency response to locate him. Believed to be heading south in a white 2011 Dodge Ram pickup, authorities tracked him into Oklahoma. His flight came to an end when his truck sustained a blown front tire near Forgan, Oklahoma. As he was waiting for assistance from a local tire shop, deputies from the Beaver County Sheriff's Office approached and arrested him without incident. Cadena-Garcia was taken into custody and held in the Beaver County Jail on a warrant for capital murder in connection with the deaths of both Cabrera and Morales-Santos, in addition to charges of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery.
