A father in Texas recently claimed that TikTok videos assisted authorities in tracking down the suspected killer of his 19-year-old son. In November 2023, Luis Carlos Laguna Sr.’s son, Louis Carlos “Carlos” Laguna Jr., was shot and killed while leaving a party.
In early April, Fort Worth Police arrested and charged 20-year-old Martin Ramirez-Lopez for the murder of Carlos. Laguna Sr. spoke highly of his son, noting his exceptional character and constant inclination toward dancing.
“He was a good kid. And I know a lot of parents say that their kids were the best, but he truly was a good kid,” Laguna Sr. told Fox New Digital. He added that Carlos would dance “at the drop of a hat, no matter what kind of music was playing, or even if no music was playing.”
Carlos, a recent high school graduate, was pursuing an associate’s degree at Tarrant County College. Inspired by his father, he reportedly aspired to join the Navy before pivoting to law enforcement or trade, such as welding.
However, these plans would never be fulfilled. According to Carlos’ father, the 19-year-old and two friends found themselves engaged in a verbal altercation when leaving a ranch party. Allegedly, an individual they had been arguing with shot at them as they were driving away, fatally wounding Carlos.
“My son and his two friends were leaving this ranch party in North Fort Worth. When they were leaving, they got into an argument with another group of individuals, both male and females. And it was strictly verbal, just arguing back and forth,” Laguna said. “There was no pushing, there was no punching — nothing like that. Nothing physical. The two groups separated. My son went on his way with his friends. They got in his truck. As the truck was leaving, this individual shot through the back of the truck and hit my son.”
“I guess my thinking was … did he get shot in the arm or a shot in the leg or the back or what? Never, never did I imagine that he would have been shot in the head,” the father added, becoming visibly emotional when recalling the loss of his son.
As the family was left without answers for the murder of their son, Laguna Sr. turned to social media, seeking assistance from anyone who had information about the killing. According to the detective investigating, the case, someone had seen Laguna Sr.’s pleas for help on TikTok, leading them to reveal information to law enforcement which resulted in the arrest of Ramirez-Lopez. The suspected killer is being held on $500,000 bond.
“A lot of people were saying, ‘You should do fliers. You put up posters, get billboards, march downtown.’ But deep inside, I felt that the only way to do that — to really reach these kids that were there — would [be] the same way that they found out about the party … through either TikTok or Instagram,” the father said. “And so that’s when I started taking the videos to TikTok and showing videos of my son and how beautiful of a person he was. And I wanted people to be able to relate to him, to see that he truly didn’t deserve this.”
“It paid off, big time,” he added. “This guy’s in jail. I hope he never comes out of there again. And … he can never do this to anybody else.” The family noted they now have “some peace,” but it cannot make up for the tragic loss of their son. See local news coverage of the murder below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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