Some of Wichita’s surveillance cameras were down during Old Town killing on Labor Day

Some of the city of Wichita’s surveillance cameras have been offline for months, including some that could have potentially captured a shooting in Old Town early Monday morning that killed 23-year-old D’Andre Rubio-Glover, the Wichita Eagle has learned.

Police say the inoperable cameras did not harm the department's ability to identify a suspect and, on Wednesday night, they arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of first-degree murder in the shooting. He has not yet been charged.

Shots rang out near a large crowd of people outside Fever Night Life, a nightclub at 116 N. Mead in Old Town, at 1:39 a.m. on Monday, according to a review of emergency communications audio.

A few minutes later, an officer located Rubio-Glover in a roadway north of an alley between Mead and Rock Island. He had been shot and later died in the hospital. The officer also found shell casings on the street and asked over her police radio for another officer to begin looking at cameras in the area.

Minutes later, she asked for an update from that officer.

“Any luck on cameras?” she asked.

“Negative,” a male officer says. “All the cameras on the 100 block of Mead are down, unfortunately. So we’re going to have to contact the business owners.”

The female officer then asked whether the male officer had reviewed another camera “that should point right where we’re at.”

“So that, I’m reviewing right now; it doesn’t look like a suspect ran that way. Shots went off at 1:39, and you see a huge crowd scatter, running into the parking lot and getting out to the street.”

It's unclear where the working camera was located or whether it is owned by the city.

Wichita city officials blanketed Old Town in surveillance cameras in 2017 to provide near-full, high-definition video coverage of the popular bar and club district in the aftermath of several high profile violent crimes, including the unsolved murder of Kolby Hopkins in 2013 when a shooter opened fire on a crowd of people in the 100 block of North Mead, where the cameras are now offline and near the Rubio-Glover shooting.

The cameras were installed to help deter crime, enable officers to quickly respond to violent crimes, identify and locate suspects, and gather evidence of crimes.

Wichita police Capt. Aaron Moses, in response to The Eagle’s questions, acknowledged on Wednesday that some cameras were down on Monday morning, “but we would not say it has made our ability to identify a suspect more difficult.”

“Regarding the Old Town camera system, some cameras on Mead were down at the time of the incident due to a failed radio and switch, which we believe may have been caused by a storm,” Moses said in a statement.

Moses said replacement parts for the camera system were ordered in June and, after delivery delays, were installed in August.

But the Mead cameras were not recording Monday, Sept. 1. They remain down.

“Due to ongoing construction in the area, cabling that needs repaired for the cameras cannot be installed at this time,” Moses said.

“We’ve been working on a different solution to mitigate the issue and restore full operation for the Old Town camera system as soon as possible,” Moses said.

This story was originally published September 4, 2025 at 4:37 AM.