Tragedy in Texas: Shooting at fast food restaurant leaves two Latino employees dead

Gun violence in the United States continues to directly impact the Latino community. On Wednesday, June 26, a shooting in Irving, Texas, ended the lives of two Hispanic employees at a Chick-fil-A restaurant. When police arrived at the fast food establishment around 3:50 p.m. local time, they found two people with gunshot wounds, who were pronounced dead at the scene located in the 5300 block of N MacArthur Blvd, northwest of Dallas. The victims were identified as Patricia Chileno, 49, and Brayan Alexis Godoy, 31. Both were workers at the popular chicken sandwich restaurant.

The Irving, Texas Police Department reported on its X account that Oved Bernardo Mendoza Argueta, a 37-year-old immigrant, was arrested early Thursday morning, June 27, and is currently in the Irving City Jail awaiting arraignment on the charge of capital murder of multiple persons. Mendoza Argueta’s wife, who is also an employee of Chick-fil-A, witnessed the shooting and was able to identify her partner as the perpetrator of the crime.

Irving authorities said they have gathered enough information to determine that the victims were the target of Mendoza Argueta, who fled the scene before police arrived. According to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the United States Office of Deportation and Removal (ERO), Argueta is originally from El Salvador.

The fast food franchise issued a statement expressing its condolences: “Our hearts are broken by the tragedy that occurred at our restaurant. Our two team members will be greatly missed. Right now, we are focused on providing support to our team and the families of the victims.”

Relatives and friends of the victims have created campaigns on the GoFundMe platform for the repatriation of the body of Brayan Godoy and the funeral expenses of Patricia Chileno. The fundraising website reported that Chileno “was a single, working mother who left her daughter behind.” Regarding Godoy, it was reported that she left behind four orphaned children and that the money requested is to send her remains to Guatemala, since she had no family in the United States.

With this latest violent event, so far in 2024 there have been 260 mass shootings in the United Statesaccording to data from Gun Violence Archivean organization that tracks the consequences of gun violence in the United States.

Thousands die every year from gun violence

The persistence of gun violence in the United States reflects a unique problem on the international scene. No other developed nation experiences mass shootings with the same frequency or scale. In 2023, 18,854 people lost their lives due to gun violence, while in 2022 it was 20,390 and in 2021 the number reached 21,068 deaths. The latest statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention The CDC highlights that more firearm-related deaths were recorded in 2021 than in any other documented year.

The main reason for mass shootings

John Lindsay-PolandProject coordinator Stop US Arms to Mexicopoints out that the United States faces cultural, legal and structural problems. “Not only mass shootings, but also gun violence.” The researcher says that one variable that influences this is the large number of weapons that exist.

The most reliable estimates indicate that there are more than 400 million firearms in the United States. This exceeds the number of inhabitants of the country, which is approximately 331 million according to the 2020 census.