A groom was was shot in the head as his wedding reception morphed into an attempted robbery scene.
Manuel and Dulce Gonzalez were celebrating their union in an intimate party in their backyard in the Dutchtown neighborhood of St Louis, Missouri, when two masked gunmen barged in from a driveway fence shared by the bride and her sister, FOX 2 reported.
The men demanded money and told everyone to stay still, then opened fire and struck Manuel, 32, in the head multiple times shortly before 1am on Saturday.
Manuel was rushed to a local hospital and was in critical condition.
‘He was getting married with a small family ceremony at her home with their 2 small children. The family was robbed at gunpoint and her husband was shot in the head,’ states a GoFundMe page to help Dulce’s family.
‘He’s alive and in critical condition. We need prayers that he will come through this.’
The suspects fled on foot from the home on the 3800 block of Neosho Street without taking any money or valuables from the family.
‘They took nothing, yet they took everything from us,’ the bride’s sister, Yaribeth Pena, told the TV station.
‘He’s a good father. A good husband to my sister. He’s a hard worker. He’s just an all-around good person that, I don’t know, he didn’t deserve this.’
The GoFundMe page had raised more than $20,000 as of Tuesday evening.
An investigation into the shooting continues and the suspects remain at large.
The family is asking community members to check for CCTV they could turn in to police.
Anyone with information on the crime is urged to contact the St Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
The incident happened about a month after an Indiana groom was jailed hours after his wedding when a brawl broke out around a guest flirting with a woman. The groom claimed he did not intend to shoot another man amid a struggle over a gun.
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