A Fort Lauderdale restaurant became the crime scene of a deadly dispute that escalated to a fatal shooting early Monday morning. Authorities reported that the incident occurred at the Mexican eatery Antojitos Mexicanos, leading to the arrest of 46-year-old Cesar Esquivel Estrada on charges of first-degree murder. Investigators said the argument was sparked by a disagreement over a song selection on the restaurant’s jukebox. Estrada was captured by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department’s Fugitive Unit in conjunction with the U.S. Marshals Service, as per WSVN.
Details surrounding the altercation indicate that the dispute began to shortly after 1:30 a.m., when one man took offense to the other's music choice. This confrontation led to a heated exchange and resulted in one of the men pulling out a firearm and shooting the other. The victim, identified by police as 54-year-old Socorro Camacho, was pronounced dead at the scene. In relation to the events that led up to the shooting, Mauro Bonilla, who is a frequent customer of Antojitos Mexicanos, recounted to WSVN, "The guy that got insulted pulled his weapon and started shooting the other guy."
Following the shooting, panic ensued as patrons ran from the restaurant while the suspect fled the scene. Employees were left to deal with the chaos and aftermath. Law enforcement officials quickly issued an arrest warrant for Estrada on Monday. The subsequent arrest occurred yesterday, and details of the investigation are still being released as the case develops.
Bonilla, who was not present during the shooting but spoke with someone who witnessed the whole event, expressed his disbelief about the weapons being brought into the establishment, saying, "How they both got inside with a weapon I don’t know," in a statement obtained by NBC Miami. The senselessness of the dispute was palpable, with Camacho's brother conveying the devastation of losing the only family he had in Florida over something as trivial as a song choice. "I only know they fought over a song and that is it," he said. The investigation to is ongoing as police continue to examine the circumstances surrounding the deadly dispute.
