Man Sentenced For Fatally Shooting Friend Outside Edgewater Restaurant

EDGEWATER, MD — An Annapolis man will spend 18 years in prison for fatally shooting his friend outside an Edgewater restaurant in 2022, prosecutors announced.

Alexander Salinas, 21, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty in May to charges including second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Luis Angel Meza-Santiago, State's Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said in a news release. Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Morris imposed a sentence of 40 years with all but 15 years suspended.

Salinas will also be placed on five years of supervised probation upon release, prosecutors said.

Just after midnight on Dec. 3, 2022, Anne Arundel County police were called to Los Chaparitos restaurant in Edgewater. When they arrived, officers found Meza-Santiago in the parking lot suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to Anne Arundel Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

According to authorities, Meza-Santiago and Salinas arrived at the restaurant earlier that night and were near a table where a large group of people sat. At one point, prosecutors said the group moved outside.

Shortly after, surveillance video showed Salinas exiting the restaurant and pulling out a gun. Prosecutors said he fired a single shot toward the group and Meza-Santiago immediately fell to the ground.

Following the shooting, video captured several people tackling Salinas and the gun changing hands several times. The weapon was never recovered, prosecutors said.

Salinas was arrested at the scene, prosecutors said, and later admitted to unintentionally shooting his friend.