A confrontation in the parking lot of the Blue Diamond Cabaret, just east of Stillwater, Oklahoma, ended in a deadly shooting in the early morning hours of April 23, 2023. The victim was Marco Antonio De Leon, a 22-year-old from Texas working in the Cushing area as an oilfield contractor. Witnesses say a fistfight escalated and De Leon suffered at least eight gunshot wounds; one shot to the center of his chest was fatal. He was found in the grass on the east side of the club’s parking lot and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators focused on 28-year-old Joaquin Daniel Ruiz-Medrano of Stillwater after a cell phone believed to be his was recovered at the scene. The day after the shooting he surrendered to the Payne County Sheriff’s Office accompanied by an attorney and a witness, bringing a gun with him. Initial accounts from Ruiz-Medrano and a friend claimed self-defense, alleging De Leon had been the aggressor and had a gun, but witnesses and the absence of any other firearm at the scene contradicted that claim. Anyone who was at the Blue Diamond Cabaret that morning or who knew either man is asked to come forward with information.