On the cold night of February 2, 2019, the life of 22-year-old Anthony James Lynn Slaughter, a Black/African American male, was tragically cut short in Wichita, Kansas. The incident unfolded behind the Rumba Latina Club, a nightclub located at 1953 S. Hydraulic. It was around 11:38 p.m. when multiple calls were made to the police reporting the sound of several gunshots in the area.
One of those calls for help came from Slaughter himself, who passed his phone to bystanders as his strength faded.
Witnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots during a disturbance behind the club. Slaughter was struck once in the upper chest. In a desperate attempt to escape his assailant, he ran a block to the west before collapsing in the street at the intersection of Mt. Vernon and Greenwood. When police and paramedics arrived, they found him lying in the street. He was rushed to a local hospital, but his injury proved fatal, and he was pronounced dead at 12:41 a.m.
The investigation into the homicide quickly pointed to a suspect. Two days after the shooting, on February 4, 2019, police arrested 26-year-old Jose Enrique Fortiz. He was charged with first-degree premeditated murder, attempted murder, two counts of criminal discharge of a firearm, and criminal possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. Prosecutors argued that the shooting was the result of a long-standing gang rivalry between Fortiz and a friend of Slaughter. They contended that Slaughter was not the intended target but was an innocent victim caught in the crossfire. The intended target was believed to be Slaughter's friend, who had accompanied him to the club that night to retrieve a forgotten debit card. The feud between Fortiz and Slaughter's friend had allegedly started eight years prior during a dispute at the 2011 River Fest.
The legal proceedings against Jose E. Fortiz were complex and drawn out. His first trial, in November 2019, ended in a mistrial after the jury became "hopelessly deadlocked" and could not reach a unanimous verdict. A second trial was held, and in May 2021, a jury found Jose E. Fortiz not guilty of all charges related to the death of Anthony Slaughter. The defense attorney argued that the identification of Fortiz as the shooter by Slaughter's friend was not a positive identification. The defense claimed that his client was blamed simply because he was the only person at the club that the friend recognized from his past. Following the acquittal, no further arrests have been made in connection with the murder of Anthony James Lynn Slaughter.
