- Manuel Gonzalez was shot by masked gunmen at his wedding reception
- Police are still investigating the shooting Friday night
A couple’s wedding night turned into a horror show after the groom was shot in the head by a masked gunman.
Dulce and Manuel Gonzalez were finally getting married on Friday night after a decade and two children together, KSDK reports.
The night was going well, with 50 family members celebrating the couple in the backyard of their St. Louis, Missouri home until the early morning hours.
But just before 1am on Saturday, two masked gunmen entered the party from the bride and her sister’s shared driveway fence, according to Fox 2 Now.
The assailants yelled for nobody to move as they demanded money from the wedding guests – brandishing their guns as a threat.
Dulce and Manuel Gonzalez’s wedding Friday night turned into a horror when two masked gunmen shot the husband in the head
Police say one of the men then started going through the guests’ pockets, while the other stood behind the 32-year-old groom and shot him in the head several times.
At that point, the men ran away – without taking any of the family’s items or money.
‘They took nothing, yet they took everything from us,’ the bride’s sister, Yaribeth Pena, told Fox 2 as her new brother-in-law remains in critical condition at a local hospital.
The family said they saw some signs of hope when Manuel moved his hands.
‘He’s fighting for his life,’ Pena said. ‘We are hoping he pulls through.’
The couple finally got married on Friday after more than a decade and two kids together
Pena added that her sister is now ‘distraught, she’s depressed, she’s heartbroken,’ as police continue to investigate the shooting.
‘They were saying my brother-in-law was going for his wallet, and maybe they thought he was going for a weapon,’ Pena suggested.
She said she now worries about her family’s safety in the Dutchtown neighborhood of the city.
‘I feel like we would have to move to feel comfortable,’ she told KSDK, as she begged the community to help her family locate the suspects, whom she believes are teenagers.
The suspects ran off on foot following the shooting, without any money or any of the family’s belongings
An online fundraiser has also been set up to help the family with expenses, including medical bills and the loss of Manuel’s income. As of Monday night, it had raised over $12,000.
No arrests have been made yet in the shooting, and police say the investigation is ongoing.
But as of Sunday afternoon, the family said detectives had not yet collected all of the evidence left at the scene and had not interviewed all of the witnesses.
