Neighbors recall driver who was fatally shot crashing through fences, garage in NE Wichita

Viette Sanders awoke from her sleep when she heard pop, pop, pop, which she figured to be gunshots.

It was followed by a crash nearby and the power went out. Her dogs started barking. She put on warm clothes and started to head into her backyard when police stopped her.

An SUV had crashed into her garage, leaving the garage leaning and damaging a 1964 Ford Falcon that she had been restoring. Inside the SUV was a man fatally shot.

Clemente Camarillo, 22, died at the scene.

Just before 2 a.m. Friday, police responded to a shooting at 13th and Oliver. Police found the SUV crashed into the garage just east of the intersection, between Glendale and Harding. The SUV had been shot multiple times and “multiple shell casings (were) located in the middle of the street,” Wichita police Capt. Jason Stephens said.

Camarillo had been shot one time. An unnamed 25-year-old man riding in the SUV was unharmed.

Stephens said the shooting happened when Camarillo and the passenger were heading east on 13th and one or more occupants of another vehicle, believed to be a blue sedan heading the same direction, opened fire on Camarillo’s vehicle, Stephens said.

Police don’t think the shooting was random.

“We do believe that it is possible that these vehicles had been encountering each other prior to the intersection of 13th and Oliver,” Stephens said. “It appears to have been a targeted incident directed at the occupants of the SUV.”

Camarillo lost control and crashed through three fences and then the garage.

The SUV first crashed through the Nguyens’ fence before hitting Sanders’ fences and then the garage. Thi Nguyen said the crash woke his sleeping parents. His mother then called him.

“She’s scared,” he said.

Police came to their door, but Nguyen said his parents don’t understand much English. Nguyen said he fixed his parents’ fence just before Christmas after another driver ran into it.

The force of the crash tilted Sanders’ garage and pushed her classic car forward, leaving her unable to completely open the side door. The car had been a gift from her father that she took out during warmer days.

“He had to be going at a pretty good clip, because he came through everything,” she said.

First responders reinforced the front of the garage, where the now-mangled garage door once stood, with a chunk of concrete and a wood beam.

“The garage and most of the other stuff in here is covered,” she said. “My car is going to be the big one … I don’t have any insurance on it because it’s an antique. I am working on it ... I kept it back here because I thought it was safe, little did I know.”

The SUV has been removed but glass and plastic parts of the vehicle, including parts of the light covers, are still scattered in front of Sanders’ garage.

This is the second homicide of 2022. Wichita had three by this time last year. Police are asking anyone with information about the shooting to contact Crime Stoppers at 316-267-2111.

“Anytime somebody loses their life, it’s concerning,” Sanders said.

Contributing: Matthew Kelly of The Eagle

This story was originally published January 7, 2022 at 2:49 PM.