LAS CRUCES, N.M. – As the Las Cruces community is coming together in the wake of Friday’s mass shooting, memorials now sit in the parking lot of Young Park, where three victims died. 

Family members, friends and neighbors have come to pay their respects as they try to make sure Andrew AJ Madrid, Jason Gomez and Dominick Estrada are more than just names.

“I’m missing him bad right now. It’s hurting me so bad,” said Justin Gomez, Jason’s brother. 

Justin says when his brother, Jason, would smile, it would light up a room.

“Always something about his teeth. And his teeth was so straight he always had to do that. He was like, I need grills. I need to get grills,” said Justin. “He was a good man, no matter what he went through in the day, that was made sure to put a smile on his face. So, he was strong, had a kind heart.”

Jason died in Friday’s mass shooting at Young Park in Las Cruces. He was just 17 years old.

Isaac Ramirez, who says Jason was like a brother to him, says he wished he could’ve been there to help.

“I always told him that I’m gonna go first, and I never, I just wish I was here to help him. Hate to see my brother die without help,” said Ramirez. 

Now, Justin and Ramirez just want to make sure Jason will be remembered.

“He was good at writing. I’m gonna get some of those tattooed on me. I’ll always remember,” Justin said. “He always wanted to be a tattoo artist, too, man. He did his first tattoo on me right here… [It says] thick and thin.”

For those who survived the mass shooting, they’re replaying what happened. They’re just trying to make sense of it all.

“I can’t stop seeing his face in my dreams… I did the best I could, I couldn’t save him, I tried so hard… I prayed so hard,” Craig Theriault said.

Craig Theriault came to Young Park to show off his antique car Friday.

“I came to bring my car to do some burnouts with the kids. And this has always been a positive event, always,” Theriault said.

He never imagined what would happen next. Without meaning to, he captured the moment when 18 people were shot.

In the video, you can hear the moment Theriault realizes what happened.

“Oh my God, I just witnessed a murder,” he said.

From there, Theriault jumped into action, heading over to Dominick Estrada.

“I took my shirt off and [made it into] makeshift a tourniquet. I felt the back of his head. There was an exit wound and I knew I had the blood pressure. He was still breathing — heavily – but still breathing, so I wrapped him, and I held him as close as I could,” Theriault said.

Theriault says he knew he had to try to stop the bleeding.

“I felt the gaping hole in the back of his head, I had to, I had to react. I couldn’t. I couldn’t not react,” he said.

Soon after, an officer arrived to help but Theriault made sure Dominick wasn’t alone.

“He wasn’t alone. I wasn’t going to let him go either. I didn’t care about what was happening around me. I didn’t care at all. I know is that he needed me beside it, and I held him,” Theriault said.

#RESOURCES: The Family Assistance and Resource Center is open today and tomorrow for anyone impacted by the Las Cruces Mass Shooting.
10:00-6:00PM at Las Cruces Convention Center on University Ave
Open to LC & Doña Ana County Residents
All services are FREE@KOB4

— Monica Logroño (@Monica_Logrono) March 24, 2025