On the evening of September 25, 2016, a fight at El Paraiso Restaurant on Madison Avenue in Bridgeport, Connecticut, escalated into deadly violence. Thirty-six-year-old Cristobal Hernandez was shot once in the chest at close range after a dispute among patrons turned physical; he was taken to St. Vincent’s Medical Center and died of his injuries. Security footage inside the restaurant captured the incident and helped identify a person of interest.

Police identified Douglas Rivas as the suspect, saying the dispute was personal and that Rivas had threatened Hernandez after learning Hernandez was dating Rivas’s former girlfriend. Investigators allege Rivas waited while Hernandez used the restroom and attacked him as he emerged; Rivas fled the scene and a box of bullets found at his home matched the type used in the shooting.

A warrant was issued five days later and a manhunt followed; Rivas was arrested in Florida in April 2017, waived extradition, and returned to Connecticut. After a trial ended in a hung jury, Rivas pleaded to reduced charges and was sentenced in January 2020 to 16 years in prison. Did anyone in Bridgeport know Hernandez or witness the events that night?