In the early morning hours of Sunday, March 23, 2014, 28-year-old security guard Bruno Rodriguez was shot and killed at Las Delicias, a bar on Morris Street in Dalton, Georgia. Rodriguez, who had been working at the bar for a few months to earn extra money and had told his family he planned to quit soon, was unarmed when he intervened after staff denied entry to an underage patron. He was shot in the head; another security guard was wounded but survived.

Authorities identified 20-year-old Orlando Ramirez as the shooter. A manhunt led to Ramirez’s arrest in Marietta. Several others were detained in connection with the case: Juvencio Vega-Garcia and Fernando Resendiz were charged as accessories for being with Ramirez before and after the shooting, and Alexa Jiminez and Ulises Corona faced charges of hindering the investigation and making false statements to law enforcement. The District Attorney said the public nature of the crime and the risk to multiple people influenced consideration of the death penalty. Bruno Rodriguez’s family remembered him as happy, positive, and hardworking.