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The suspect was driving the wrong way in the parking lot and they exchanged words, according to police.
A Texas father has been shot dead at his 6-year-old daughter's birthday party.
Calogero Dueñes, 24, was gunned down in the parking lot of the Chuck E. Cheese in Humble on Friday night as he carried in the birthday cake, according to police.
"We had just gotten off, I had gotten my daughters off, I was going to get the stamped and get them prepared when their dad came in," his widow Amber Uresti told KHOU.
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View Story"He ran in and he was screaming, 'I got shot, I got shot.' I ran out behind him, my daughters ran out behind me, they saw him laying on the floor," she said.
"I have not seen my husband since he was on the floor. They didn't even allow me to go with him. I didn't even spend the last moments with him."
Investigators say Dueñes was making his way across the parking lot when he encountered a young male in a Ford driving the wrong direction; they exchanged words when the driver pulled a gun and opened fire, before fleeing the scene.
"I don't understand how someone could do something to somebody like that," Uresti said. "He was walking with a cake."
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View Story"I just hope he is found quickly for the safety of the community as well, because if he did this to my husband, I mean imagine, he could do this to anybody else, a child, anybody."
Uresti, who also shared a three-year-old daughter with Dueñes, described him as a "Loving, caring father, husband; he was so silly and playful; he was the class clown in high school."
Uresti's sister Rosemarie said the driver of the vehicle had tried to run Dueñes over before fatally shooting him.
"Our entire family is devastated in this tragedy. He left behind 2 baby girls," she wrote in a GoFundMe. "This is not how we expected to start the new year."
