KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Days after the shooting at a bar in Kansas City, Kansas, a group of strangers is raising money to properly honor one of the four men who died.
Martin Rodriguez-Gonzalez, 58, led a quiet life before being shot to death while sitting inside Tequila KC early Sunday morning.
Toni Maciel, who says she knew almost all of the people who were shot, says much about Rodriguez-Gonzalez’s life remains unknown.
“Nobody knows much about him,” she said. “From what we know, he’s from Cuba.”
Maciel and others organized a GoFundMe page on Tuesday in hopes of raising donations for his burial.
Rodriguez-Gonzalez's sister in Cuba said her older brother came to the U.S. nearly 40 years ago. They still spoke three times a day, even though they "lived a world apart," Rosa Oduardo Lopez said through a translator.
Rodriguez-Gonzalez, who she described as "very caring and loving," texted her the day of the shooting. He said he was going to the store to buy her a birthday present then planned to stop at a bar for a drink before going home.
Lopez planned to video chat with her brother on Tuesday. It was her birthday.
Instead, she spoke with Maciel about her brother's funeral.
“Everybody deserves to have a proper burial, even if you don’t know them,” Maciel said. “Out of the kindness of our hearts, we want to put something together for him.”
Anyone with information about Rodriguez-Gonzalez is asked to contact Larkin and Garcia Funeral Care at 913-371-7000.
This story was originally published by Tom Dempsey on KSHB.
