Gerardo Junior Sandoval, an 18-year-old Hispanic man known to friends and family as Junior, was killed in a mass shooting after midnight on October 12, 2024, at Patty’s Event Center in southwest Oklahoma City. A Halloween celebration was taking place when an argument between Sandoval and a group of individuals escalated into gunfire inside and outside the venue. Fourteen other people were wounded in the incident.

Those who knew him remembered Junior as funny, sweet, kind and caring — a class clown with a bright smile, a basketball player who also boxed, and the man of the house devoted to his mother. The Oklahoma City Police Department says multiple shooters were involved and that Ramos was allegedly seen pointing a pistol at Sandoval just outside the front door before shots were fired. Three suspects have been arrested: 19-year-old Jaziel Ramos and 20-year-old Thomas Santiago, each facing complaints of First-Degree Murder, and 20-year-old Abraham Violante, facing multiple complaints of assault with a deadly weapon. The shooting is recorded as the city’s 68th homicide of 2024.

If anyone attended the event or has information about what happened that night, please come forward.