Second shooter charged in Las Cruces city park gunfight

LAS CRUCES — The alleged second shooter accused in a fatal gunfight at a city park is free as he awaits a preliminary court hearing next week.

State District Judge Douglas Driggers on Wednesday denied a bid by prosecutors to hold Elijah Sambrano, 18, behind bars ahead of his trial. He faces felony charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and tampering with evidence for initially refusing to turn himself in or present his firearm for investigation. Court records indicate he was taken into custody on Sept. 10, six days following the incident.

Shots were exchanged in the parking lot of Salopek/Stull Park on Sept. 4 in what police describe as an altercation involving the passengers of two vehicles. The driver of one of those vehicles, Julia Clark, was fatally wounded when the altercation quickly escalated to gunfire. The 19-year-old was flown to University Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, in critical condition, where she died on Sept 6.

Christopher Hernandez, 19, was a passenger in Clark’s vehicle and told police that Sambrano shot him. His injuries were not life-threatening.

Apolinar Rosales Jr., 18, was indicted by a grand jury Tuesday on felony charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence, plus a misdemeanor count of unlawful possession of a handgun by a person under the age of 19. He remains in custody at the Doña Ana County Detention Center awaiting arraignment on Monday, according to court records. Prosecutors say Rosales, another passenger in Clark’s vehicle, struck Clark while shooting at adversaries from the second vehicle, who included Sambrano.

Prosecutors allege that Sambrano emerged with a handgun after parking behind the SUV driven by Clark and demanded Hernandez “give him everything he had” before shooting him in his right leg.

“The incident occurred at a public community park,” a petition seeking to keep Sambrano in custody stated. Salopek/Stull Park was dedicated nearly 40 years ago in a residential neighborhood near Tortugas Pueblo, and features playground and picnic equipment as well as walking trails. At least one witness uninvolved with the parties was present when the shooting took place, per police reports.

The judge ruled that prosecutors failed to prove that no conditions of release would keep the community safe, and ordered Sambrano’s release under a secured $5,000 bond and standard pretrial release conditions, including prohibitions from possessing firearms and avoiding the victim as well as the park.

The shooting struck a nerve in the city as the latest in a string of shootings involving juveniles and young adults with firearms in and near city parks. Four men ranging 14 to 20 years in age are awaiting trial in a shootout that occurred in Young Park in March, that killed three teenage boys and wounded 15 other people. In May, a Las Cruces police officer shot and killed 18-year-old Josiah Perrault across the street from the same park, as Perrault allegedly chased two people across a neighboring parking lot with a firearm. In a sensational case that President Donald Trump commented on during his 2024 presidential campaign, 51-year-old James Garcia was stabbed to death and decapitated in Apodaca Park in 2021. His killer, Joel Arciniega-Saenz, 28, was convicted of first-degree murder in March.

Community members have called on the city to reinforce behavioral health services as well as increase community activities for youth.

No granular data about service calls and reported incidents at city parks had been assembled, the city told the Journal.

LCPD Chief Jeremy Story has pointed to understaffing as part of the challenge in securing parks and other gathering spaces across the city. Last week, Story unveiled a new $2 million real-time crime center monitoring areas of the city through closed-circuit, drone and body-worn cameras allowing operators to coordinate with officers in the field and retrieve data about subjects and premises while police activity is underway.

On Monday, Story told the City Council surveillance technology had been deployed at the largest of eight city parks, and he said 25 police academy graduates were about to begin field training.

“If we zoom out and look at the number of parks that we have to cover in the city that gives us some perspective,” Story told council members. “The reality is, we would like to do a better job of covering all the parks. Staffing is a matter of officers vs. calls for service vs. proactive time. That’s a formula that we want to improve.”