Las Cruces marks Young Park shooting anniversary

LAS CRUCES — Saturday marks the anniversary of the fatal shootout in Young Park, the city’s worst mass casualty event in decades and an incident that put juvenile possession of firearms at the center of community debates about public safety.

On March 21, 2025, a crowd of over 100 was watching cars spin doughnuts at an unsanctioned car meet when gunfire broke out. A scene that appeared, from mobile phone videos, to be raucous but festive turned to terror on a dime as multiple shooters opened fire and a crowd of adults, teenagers and younger children scattered in horror.

At least 14 people were wounded and three young people — Dominick Estrada, 19, Andrew “AJ” Madrid, 16, and Jason Gomez, 17 — were killed. Memorials to all three stand in the parking lot where they fell after being struck by gunfire.

“It has been one year since this tragic shooting shook Las Cruces, but for many, especially the families who lost loved ones, the pain of March 21, 2025, very much remains,” U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez, a Democrat and former Las Cruces City Council member, said in a statement released Friday. “My heart is with every victim, survivor, and loved one still navigating the long road to healing.”

One year later, two accused shooters have been convicted of murder and two more are awaiting trial. A new corps of uniformed park rangers keep watch and maintain an official presence at sites around the city. The Las Cruces Police Department has set up a real-time crime center that had been in the works for years, with surveillance cameras cropping up around the city — including a busy intersection near Young Park.

Salina Madrid, a former reporter who covered the Young Park shootings a year ago, is now a spokesperson for the Las Cruces Police Department. On Friday, she said, “We respect and support those who choose to gather in remembrance and ask that any observances remain peaceful and respectful.”

At trial, witnesses testified that a standing personal dispute lay under a confrontation that then turned to gunfire. Friends and relatives of Estrada were among the wounded who lived to testify in court.

In the first two murder trials, District Attorney Fernando Macias pressed the case that brothers Tomas and Nathan Rivas, ages 21 and 18, went to the park with plans to kill Estrada. AJ Madrid and Gomez were bystanders in the crowd.

Both brothers were convicted on three counts of first-degree murder apiece in February. Josiah Ontiveros, 16, is being tried as an adult in a trial set to open on April 1. Ontiveros had asked the court to delay the proceeding and hold the trial in a different district, partly based on the swiftness of the jury decisions in the first two trials, but state District Judge Douglas Driggers denied the motion, finding no grounds to believe Ontiveros could not receive a fair trial.

The fourth defendant, 18-year-old Gustavo Dominguez, is set for trial in July.

Meanwhile, the family of Jason Gomez has named the defendants in a wrongful death lawsuit as well as the city, which the family alleges failed to secure the park and prevent unsafe activities such as unauthorized car meetups. The civil case is pending in New Mexico’s 3rd Judicial District.

Memories linger in the community of the Feb. 10, 1990, massacre at a Las Cruces bowling alley that claimed five lives. Seven people were shot in the course of a robbery, including children: The first 911 call reporting that incident was from a 12-year-old who had been wounded. The shooters were never identified and the case remains open.

Children were also among the victims of the Young Park shooting 35 years later, and also among those wielding firearms in a nation that has grown so accustomed to gun violence since 1990 that preparing for mass shooter events is routine business at public schools.

Young Park cast a shadow all the way up to Santa Fe during this year’s 30-day legislative session, when a number of measures addressing crime prevention and penalties were debated. However, several proposals addressing assault weapons, illegal firearm possession, penalties for serious youthful offenders and unsealing juvenile records during pretrial detention hearings failed.

Vasquez highlighted his efforts over the past year to support programs addressing youth violence and prevention and bring new resources to police departments. In September, he called on social media companies to curb firearms trafficking by minors via sites like Instagram, Snapchat and Telegram.

“Our young people deserve better, and we owe it to them to not just remember, but to act,” he said.

Madrid said Las Cruces police would be on routine patrols Saturday, including around Young Park, adding, “We encourage anyone who sees suspicious or concerning activity to report it to police. Our goal is to support a safe and respectful space for reflection.”

Algernon D’Ammassa is the Journal’s southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.