The early morning attack in December on two men inside the Latin American Club in Aurora lasted only about two minutes.
The assailants took approximately $100 from a cash register and several bottles of liquor from the East Side establishment, but walked away with hundreds of dollars more which they stole from the men after they were beaten to the point of unconsciousness shortly after arriving to clean up the club. One of the men, 79-year-old Felipe Garcia of Plano, died as a result of complications believed to be tied to injuries he suffered in the attack on Dec. 6.
And, while two of the unidentified attackers wore gloves and masks, the distinct look of the third suspect’s shoes drew the attention of police looking into the crime.
Those details are contained within a lengthy search warrant affidavit filed by Aurora police in the case which, after eight months, remains under investigation. The affidavit provides an overview of what happened based on information Garcia and the second man provided police, as well as observations from a variety of surveillance cameras. In December, police released still photos taken from video inside the bar in their efforts to identify the three suspects, who have only been described as wearing hooded sweatshirts. One carried a large, machete-type knife.
Police identified the style of shoes worn by one of the suspects. The shoes, determined to be Adidas Breeze 101, were available during a “Black Friday” sale at the Adidas Store located at the Chicago Premium Outlets mall a little more than a week before the Latin American Club attack. Only one other store in the Chicago area carried the shoe, and most, if not all, of the pairs available in Aurora were sold on Black Friday or within a few days of it, the affidavit states.
With that information, police sought the search warrant in order to obtain sales records for purchases of that particular style shoe made at the Aurora store. A police spokesman cited the pending investigation for being unable to discuss whether investigators obtained those records and what, if anything, was learned from them.
Garcia and a 56-year-old man had been working for about 10 minutes cleaning up the club when the masked assailants entered the building and started yelling in English. Garcia told police he didn’t know what they were saying except for the word “money,” according the affidavit. Garcia recalled being punched by them before he was knocked unconscious. The man who was working with Garcia said one of the offenders was hitting Garcia with a bar stool, while the “larger” of the two masked suspects punched Garcia multiple times.
Garcia died hours later. He suffered at least one, possibly two, heart attacks while in the hospital for treatment.
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The other man cleaning up the club, who received non-life threatening injuries, told police he regained consciousness at one point to see Garcia punched repeatedly. The man then pretended to be unconscious to avoid being attacked again.
“(He) did remember seeing that Felipe tried to fight off the subject that confronted him,” the affidavit stated.
Anyone with information about the suspects or the robbery is encouraged to contact Aurora police at 630-256-5500 or Aurora Area Crime Stoppers at 630-892-1000.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News