Odessa 2AMer.

Private security guards at Jaguars Gold Club fired the shots that killed 28-year-old Daniel Ibarra Ruiz early Sunday morning, the Ector County Sheriff’s Office reported in a Monday morning news release that offered a narrative account of the slaying. The sheriff’s office reported that witnesses described an argument at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday between two people in the strip club parking lot outside the club at 6824 Cargo Road — a passenger in Ruiz’s vehicle and Jeffrey Mark Braun Jr., who would be critically injured in the moments ahead. Ruiz reportedly drove forward into Braun before backing up and running over him again. Two private security guards employed by Jaguars with “Front Line Security” out of Dallas yelled at the driver to stop and then fired shots at the vehicle, striking Ruiz, a release from the sheriff’s office detailed. Sheriff Mark Donaldson declined to release the identities of the security guards and refused to give a reason for withholding the information. There were no arrests. “The end result of this is going to be most likely we will send it to the district attorney’s office for them to decide whether it goes to the grand jury,” Donaldson said in a Monday interview. Such a shooting could be justified if the gunmen — or any citizen — were acting “in the protection of a third person,” the sheriff said. The Monday release said deputies had made no arrests as they continued to investigate “the cause of the disturbance.”
“If we come up with something obviously that determines that they had no justification whatsoever, then we would go ahead and file charges or something,” Donaldson said. “But so far in the investigation there is not anything that has produced that.” The Odessa American could find no Front Line Security in Dallas but did find a Front-Line Protective Services. Donaldson said “I guess it’s the same thing” on Monday. He referred questions about the names of the security guards and whether they were licensed to carry guns to the security company. A representative of Front-Line Protective Services who identified himself as “Chief Boone” hung up when called Monday about the shooting. Before hanging up a second time, he said “ain’t nothing to speak to on that” and said no one else with the company would comment. The vehicle drove away after the shooting, the sheriff’s office reported. Then the passenger, who the sheriff’s office did not identify, switched places with the injured Ruiz, drove to East 42nd Street and called 9-1-1. The sheriff’s office reported Ruiz died after he was taken by ambulance to Medical Center Hospital. His body was sent to Tarrant County for an autopsy. Braun remained in critical condition at MCH on Monday. Emergency responders reportedly considered Braun’s injuries to be “life-threatening.” The passenger, Donaldson said, was trying to take Ruiz to the hospital but “just didn’t know where it was.” Donaldson said Monday that investigators had not been able to review security footage from the strip club in full and that he did not know yet what the security cameras captured. Investigators also continued to work Monday to determine whether Ruiz intentionally hit Braun, Donaldson said, adding there would be no aggravated assault charges filed if that was the case because Ruiz died. “We know everyone involved, and we’ve been in contact with everyone involved,” Donaldson said in an interview Sunday. “We are not looking for anybody.” On Monday, the sheriff added that “there’s nobody else to arrest.” For years, county officials have described Jaguars Gold Club as a nuisance and added regulations the business must adhere to in order to operate in Ector County. As recently as January, County Attorney Dusty Gallivan called the club “a haven” for criminal activity such as drug offenses and violence. Those incidents included the Sept. 12 slaying of 24-year-old Luis Alberto Camargo in the parking lot of the club. A 17-year-old also suffered injuries from gunfire in the shooting. Days later, the sheriff’s office identified then-22-year-old Andrew Jacquez Fabela as suspected of murder in connection with the shooting. But Fabela remains at large, and law enforcement officials said he may have fled to Mexico. In early 2015, the reported victim of a May 2013 shooting, David Matthew Munoz, sued Jaguars alleging negligence and gross negligence. The case is pending. On Jan. 23, a few weeks after Gallivan described the club as “a haven” for violence, the sheriff’s office reported that a man in his early 20s was shot by a gunman accompanied by four other people. The victim, who was ultimately treated and released for a gunshot wound to his lower back, reportedly told investigators he did not know his assailants.