Gabriel Villanueba, a 32-year-old White/Caucasian man, was found shot to death just before dawn on August 21, 2023, inside the Wind River Place apartment complex in the 900 block of North 19th Street on Colorado Springs’ west side. Officers were called about 2:48 a.m. and discovered him deceased; the El Paso County Coroner identified him the next day after an autopsy. Detectives immediately treated the death as a homicide while the coroner worked to determine the precise cause and manner of death.

Arrest warrants were issued on September 11, 2023, and a coordinated operation by the Violent Offender Fugitive Task Force and specialized CSPD units took four suspects into custody that day: adults 18-year-olds Santiago Dominguez and Ali Talib, both from Colorado Springs, and two juveniles, ages 13 and 15, whose names were withheld. All four were booked on suspicion of second-degree murder; the adults faced additional counts including robbery and motor vehicle theft. Court filings later alleged the group had targeted Villanueba to steal his firearm, with the teens returning to the complex within hours of an earlier altercation before the fatal shooting.

One of the adult defendants, Santiago Dominguez, was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison by September 2025; proceedings involving the other defendants continued through the local courts.