Ignacio Tapia was 31 when a July 13, 2007 birthday celebration in a modest Oklahoma City neighborhood turned fatal. Guests were gathered at a small house on Northwest 11th Street when a car pulled up shortly after 11:30 p.m. Ignacio walked toward the vehicle to talk; an argument broke out in the street just beyond the porch light and gunfire followed. He was critically wounded, taken to a local hospital, and lingered for more than two weeks before dying of his injuries on July 31, 2007.

Police treated the event as a homicide and reconstructed the scene from shaken, drinking witnesses and roadside evidence.