A night out at a Lawrence restaurant ended in murder. On the evening of December 15, 2024, 34-year-old Germán Tepale Alonso was at Don Marco’s Restaurant on North Post Road with his brother and a friend when an argument with another group of patrons moved into the parking lot. A Lawrence Police Department officer on patrol heard gunfire about 8:30 p.m. and found Alonso with a gunshot wound; he was taken to a local hospital in critical condition and died shortly after arrival.

Witnesses pointed out a vehicle trying to leave the scene. The driver, a 42-year-old man identified as Eliezer Suarez with help from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was stopped and detained. Investigators recovered a handgun in the vehicle with a round in the chamber; ballistics testing linked the cartridges to those recovered at the scene. Suarez told officers he had been surrounded, pushed to the ground and struck in the head before firing two shots. Restaurant security video shows the fight but not the shooting itself. Eliezer Suarez was charged with murder on December 23 and had his initial court hearing that day, with further proceedings scheduled.

Anyone who was at Don Marco’s that night or who saw the vehicle leaving the parking lot is asked to come forward with information.