Late on the night of Saturday into early Sunday morning, August 28, 2022, 28-year-old Raul Aguilar III was shot at a gathering in the 1200 block of N. Westview in Derby, Kansas. His family says Aguilar, a father of three from Wichita, tried to intervene to break up a domestic dispute when a disturbance among several people escalated and a gunshot struck him. Emergency crews took him to a nearby hospital around 2:30 a.m., but he later died of his wound.

Derby police released photos and followed community tips to identify a suspect as 22-year-old Demarc Maurice Burgess of Wichita. Burgess turned himself in the Monday after the shooting with an attorney and was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder; he was later formally charged with second-degree murder and a misdemeanor battery and held on $500,000 bond. Authorities said Aguilar and Burgess did not appear to know each other before the party. The fight that preceded the shooting remained under investigation as the case was referred to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.

If anyone attended that party or has information about the disturbance that led to Aguilar’s shooting, please come forward.