In the early morning hours of October 2, 2021, a party at a Hyatt House hotel in Aurora, Colorado, turned tragic, ending the life of 18-year-old Angel Isai Ruiz. The young man, a male of Hispanic descent, was attending a gathering in one of the hotel rooms when an altercation broke out.
During the party, two men who had arrived were kicked out of the room. In an act of violence that followed, one of the men fired multiple shots through the closed hotel room door.
The gunfire struck four people inside. Angel Isai Ruiz was critically injured and rushed to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Three other individuals, a 17-year-old girl, a 22-year-old man, and a 23-year-old man, were also wounded in the shooting but were expected to survive.
Responding Aurora police officers, with the help of hotel security, quickly apprehended two suspects in connection with the fatal shooting. The investigation led to the arrests of Luis Martin Estrada, then 21, and Ruben Angel Mejia-Soto, also 21. While hotel surveillance did not capture the shooting itself, it did show Estrada leaving the hallway with a gun in his hand immediately after the shots were fired.
Luis Martin Estrada was charged with first-degree murder. In May 2023, a jury found him guilty of one count of first-degree murder, as well as attempted murder, felony menacing, first-degree assault, and possession of a weapon by a previous offender. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. His accomplice, Ruben Angel Mejia-Soto, faced an accessory charge and pleaded guilty in May 2022 to harassment and accessory to a crime for attempting to hide the gun in the hotel parking lot. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, two years of probation, and community service.
