Jorge Guevara Franco

Jorge R. Guevara Franco was a 19-year-old Salvadoran man who was born on June 3, 1996, in San Salvador, El Salvador. In the early morning hours of February 13, 2016, he was at a crowded house party near 63rd Avenue and Osborn Road in west Phoenix. As the night stretched toward dawn, music was still playing and guests were spilling out into the yard and street.

Around 3 a.m., an argument broke out among some of the partygoers and soon escalated into a physical fight. During the confrontation, Jorge got into a struggle with a 23-year-old man. At some point in the fight, a gun was drawn and Jorge fired, wounding the other man. The party dissolved into panic as people scattered, running for cover or bolting toward their cars. Amid the chaos, more gunshots rang out in the dark. A neighbor, jolted awake by the gunfire, grabbed his children and put them on the floor for safety before calling 911.

When Phoenix police officers arrived, they found Jorge lying in the roadway with multiple gunshot wounds. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. As the investigation began, detectives learned that the 23-year-old man Jorge had shot had arrived at a different Valley hospital in critical condition.

Investigators pieced together the sequence of events, determining that after Jorge shot the 23-year-old, a third, unidentified person at the party opened fire. The bullets from that shooter were the ones that struck and killed Jorge. Police said this individual fled the scene before officers arrived and has not been taken into custody.

While detectives worked the case, Jorge’s family and friends gathered to mourn his sudden death. A funeral service was held at Greenwood Memory Lawn Mortuary’s Serenity Chapel in Phoenix, followed by his interment at the cemetery.

No arrests have been made, and no suspect has been publicly identified in Jorge’s killing. The case remains unsolved.