On the evening of April 6, 2018, 21-year-old Efren Cervantes Sanchez was shot in the chest in the Valley Mall parking lot in Union Gap, Washington, after a dispute. He was taken to Yakima Regional Hospital but died shortly after arrival. Efren was born May 25, 1996, in Coalcoman, Michoacán.

Union Gap police opened a homicide investigation that identified 18-year-old Luis Coronado-Vazquez as the primary suspect and 18-year-old Alexander Pelcastre of Toppenish as the alleged driver of the getaway vehicle. Pelcastre was arrested on suspicion of rendering criminal assistance to second-degree murder. A tip to Yakima County Crime Stoppers led officers to a motel in Grandview; Coronado-Vazquez was located attempting to flee through a rear window and was apprehended and booked on an outstanding warrant for second-degree murder and first-degree assault.

What details about that night or the people involved might help explain why the dispute escalated to deadly violence?