Phillip Allen Gomez, 25, was fatally shot in the chest inside a Des Moines house on August 14, 2016, after an argument at a gathering on the city’s east side. According to eyewitnesses, the confrontation escalated when Amber Easley accused Gomez of being a police officer; Alex Marcelino then reportedly approached Gomez, asked twice if he was a cop, and shot him. Several people present, including Carlos Salaises and his girlfriend Wanda Anderson, fled the house immediately after the shooting and returned about twenty minutes later to call 911.

Investigators later linked the killing to a handgun seized four months afterward during an unrelated drug raid at a friend of Marcelino’s home; state criminalists matched bullet fragments from the scene to that weapon. Marcelino was charged with first-degree murder and was convicted. Gomez’s family described him as a giving person and a skilled handyman who enjoyed the outdoors, fishing, loud music, and good food, and who is mourned especially by his young son.