Police have charged two 17-year-old boys and a 20-year-old man with three open charges of murder after a mass shooting in a New Mexico Park who killed three teenagers and injured 15 people.
Tomas Rivas, 20, and alleged teenage shooter, who were not mentioned, were arrested by Las Cruces police on Saturday night. A third teenager, also 17, was arrested on Sunday morning.
The victims of Friday’s shooting in Young Park have been identified as 16-year-old Andrew Madrid, 18-year-old Jason Gomez and 19-year-old Dominick Estrada. Madrid and Gomez died at the scene and Estrada later died of his injuries in the Mountainview Regional Medical Center, police confirmed.
The other injured victims, whose age varies from 16 to 36, were not identified, but police said nine is male and six are female.
According to police, the older suspect in the Dona Ana County Detention Center will be discussed, where he will initially be related without connection, while the teens will be eliminated to the youth withholding facility.
About 200 people were gathered in the park on Friday night for an unauthorized car show, where modified sports car drivers show their vehicles. There was “a party-like atmosphere”, witnesses to the New York Times.
A change between two groups escalated into a gunfire and left three and left 15 injured, police said at a press conference on Saturday morning.
Young Park and the surrounding roads in the area were closed while investigators were on the scene.
State representative Nicole Chavez said her “heart goes out to all affected” in the shooting. “Let’s come together as a state and community to support the victims and their families during this difficult time,” Chavez said in a statement. “It is also an unfortunate reminder that change has to be made when it comes to crime and public safety in our state.”
Mayor Johana Bencomo, the mayor Pro Tem, said the incident is “a heinous violent act that will leave our city moral” in an Instagram post. “A part of me wanted to write that this is something that you will never really happen in your city, but that it actually feels deeply false. ‘
