Friends and family members are mourning the death of a 30-year-old California man who was killed at his wedding reception just hours after he exchanged wedding vows with his wife.
It was reported that two uninvited brothers came to the newlyweds’ reception over the weekend and beat the groom to death with baseball bats.
The Groom, Joe Melgoza, 30, suffered from a blunt-force trauma to the head after he was attacked across the street from the reception venue in Chino, California, at around 2.20am on Sunday. He was rushed to Chino Valley Medical Center, where he died.
Police have identified the suspects in the groom’s brutal killing as brothers Rony Aristides Castaneda Ramirez, 28, and 19-year-old Josue Daniel Castaneda Ramirez.
According to the Chino Police Department, the siblings did not know Melgoza, but lived not far from the home of his wife’s family in the 13200 block of 17th Street where the wedding reception was being held, and showed up at the celebration uninvited, reported KTLA5.
The wedding crashers allegedly got into a fight with some of the guests and were asked to leave, which they did, only to return a short time later armed with baseball bats, according to Melgoza’s brother Andy Velasquez.
Velasquez told NBC Los Angeles through sobs that his brother tried to confront the ‘cowards,’ who then pulled him away and killed him.
My brother did not deserve to die like that, he was a good man, he was a solid man,’ Velasquez said, while comforted by his two surviving brothers and a sister. ‘My brother was protecting his family. They came and they murdered him.’
Joe Melgoza is survived by his wife of just a few hours, Esther Bustamante Melgoza, and his 11-year-old daughter.
