Jose Tirado Ramirez, 27, known to family as Miguelito, was shot multiple times after an altercation in the C-Town Supermarket parking lot on Tilghman Street in Allentown on the evening of May 14, 2023. Police say surveillance video shows him speaking with a group before the confrontation. Officers found him about 9:35 p.m. in the driver’s seat of his car after it crashed at West Mohr and West Washington Streets; he died at a hospital. The Lehigh County Coroner ruled the death a homicide by multiple gunshot wounds.

Allentown police identified two suspects, Adalberto Morales-Ortiz, then 45, and his nephew, Axel Fontanez-Morales, then 21; both were arrested and charged with criminal homicide, attempted homicide, and aggravated assault. The defendants’ attorneys said the encounter was a chaotic shootout involving several people and weapons and argued self-defense. A five-day trial in Lehigh County Court ended with a jury acquitting both men on March 13, 2026. The family stated they were devastated; with those acquittals, no one has been convicted in Jose Tirado Ramirez’s killing as of March 2026.

If anyone was at the C-Town parking lot that night or has information about the confrontation, please share what is known with authorities.