Tony Vasquez played bass with his father and dreamed of performing at a Salvadoran carnival before his death at age 31.
IRVING, Texas — Before his name appeared in an arrest affidavit, Tony July Vasquez was known by his family as a musician, a writer in progress and a joyful son who shared a stage with his father.
Vasquez, 31, died June 20 after he was struck while riding a motorized scooter in Irving early the previous morning. Police say the same vehicle passed through the scene twice before leaving him critically injured near Cantrell Street and Cibola Drive. Noe Ibarra Cedeno, 36, was arrested after officers found a damaged black Honda Civic nearby. He faces charges that include intoxication manslaughter and collision involving death. The charges are allegations, and Cedeno is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Family members described Vasquez as someone whose ambitions reached beyond the North Texas streets where he lived. He played bass in Banana Show, a band led by his father, Julio Vasquez, according to local reports. An obituary said he dreamed of performing at El Carnaval de El Salvador and was working on a book. The descriptions present a fuller picture of a man whose public identity might otherwise be reduced to the words “scooter rider” in a police report.
Julio Vasquez told FOX 4 that he missed his son deeply. He described the circumstances of the death as terrible and struggled to understand how a driver could strike someone, return through the area and then leave. His reaction came as investigators released more information about the case and as the family faced the shift from an emergency hospitalization to a death investigation. Vasquez had been taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas with multiple broken bones, damaged internal organs and severe head and brain trauma, according to the arrest affidavit. He died the next day.
The collision occurred at about 2:53 a.m. June 19 in Irving’s Espanita area, behind Irving Mall, police said. A witness reported seeing a black car strike Vasquez, who was operating a motorized scooter in the roadway. Investigators said the car then made a U-turn, traveled through the scene again and struck him a second time. The vehicle continued north on Cantrell Street, according to the witness account cited in local reporting. Police have not publicly identified the witness or released a recording of that person’s statement.
Officers found part of a front bumper at the crash scene and determined that it appeared to belong to a Honda Civic. A search of the surrounding area led them to a damaged black Civic parked in the 2800 block of Lago Vista Loop, one street away. Police said the vehicle’s bumper matched the fragment recovered near Vasquez. Investigators contacted Cedeno as he came out of a nearby home. The affidavit said he made unsolicited statements that the incident had not been his fault and that he had not meant to hit anyone.
According to the affidavit, Cedeno told police he had watched a soccer match with friends and consumed four to six beers between about 8 and 11 p.m. He later left to drive someone to a hotel. Cedeno said he hit something but did not know at first what it was. He later thought it might have been a person, investigators reported. He said he turned around and drove through the area again but did not see anything before running over what he believed was the same object. Police said he then continued to the hotel and eventually returned home.
Investigators reported that Cedeno had glassy eyes and a strong odor of alcohol on his breath. Officers also said field sobriety exercises produced signs of impairment. A preliminary breath test measured 0.103%, compared with Texas’ 0.08% legal threshold for most adult motorists. Cedeno consented to a blood draw at a hospital, according to the affidavit. The final laboratory result was not included in the public reports reviewed for this article, leaving one potentially important piece of evidence undisclosed.
The criminal case developed in stages because Vasquez initially survived the collision. Cedeno was first arrested on charges tied to serious bodily injury. After Vasquez died, authorities moved toward charges reflecting a fatality, including intoxication manslaughter and collision involving death. Reports have also listed intoxication assault and collision involving serious bodily injury among the counts. The exact set of charges that proceeds will depend on formal filings and decisions by the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
Intoxication manslaughter generally centers on whether prosecutors can show that a defendant operated a vehicle while intoxicated and, because of that intoxication, caused another person’s death. A collision-involving-death allegation concerns a driver’s legal duties after a crash. Those are separate questions, even when they arise from the same event. Prosecutors may rely on physical evidence, test results, witness statements and the defendant’s reported account. The defense can challenge how evidence was collected, interpreted and connected to the death.
The second trip through the scene is likely to receive close attention because it is one of the most troubling parts of the police account. Authorities said the car made a U-turn and struck Vasquez again. Cedeno reportedly told investigators he returned after realizing that he might have hit a person but did not see anyone before making contact with something a second time. Police have not publicly accused him of setting out to harm Vasquez, and no verified information has established that the two men knew each other. The available record describes a traffic encounter, not a prior dispute.
The distinction matters because the facts surrounding a fatal crash can carry different legal meanings. A person may face one charge for allegedly causing a death while intoxicated and another for allegedly failing to stop and help. Evidence of intent would raise different issues, but intent should not be assumed from limited public information. The prosecution’s theory, the defense response and the court’s rulings will determine what evidence jurors may eventually consider if the case reaches trial.
For Vasquez’s family, however, the court process follows a loss that has already occurred. Their accounts focus on his music, personality and plans rather than the terminology of criminal statutes. He performed beside his father, hoped to reach a larger cultural stage and was developing a written project. Those details remain separate from the allegations against Cedeno, but they explain the personal cost behind a case described in official records through injuries, test numbers and vehicle damage.
The case also leaves practical questions about the final minutes before help arrived. Public reports do not say how long Vasquez was in the roadway, who first called 911 or whether anyone attempted to assist him before emergency crews arrived. Police have not released a complete crash reconstruction, surveillance footage or a final toxicology report. Authorities have also not announced whether additional witnesses came forward after the first reports were published.
Cedeno was being held in the Dallas County jail on bonds reported to total $350,000, and an immigration detainer had been placed against him. The detainer is a separate federal matter and does not determine guilt in the Texas criminal case. No trial date or final charging decision was included in the sources reviewed. Irving police said the investigation remained active, with the case moving to county prosecutors for further review.
As that process continues, the two public narratives remain side by side: investigators reconstructing a pre-dawn collision from a bumper fragment and witness account, and relatives remembering a son through the music he made. The next major developments are expected to come from laboratory evidence, court filings or an announced hearing. Cedeno remains presumed innocent while the prosecution is pending.
Author note: Last updated July 28, 2026.