On July 18, 1995, three men walked into Pato’s Place, a quiet bar on the outskirts of town in Tulare, California.
They wore ski masks and carried shotguns. They demanded money from everyone inside and gathered about $300. Minutes later, the owner, Guadalupe Cantu, 43, was critically wounded and five others in the bar were dead.
Cantu, who’d been shot in the chest, pretended to be dead until the shooting stopped and the perpetrators left. He then managed to call 911.
Investigators described the crime scene as “horrific” and a place of “carnage.” It would take 10 years and another mass homicide before the Pato’s Place killers would be brought to trial.