A shooting in Las Cruces, New Mexico, left three dead and 15 injured, according to the Las Cruces Police Facebook page. Authorities say two of the deceased were 19 years old and one was 16 years old, while the ages of those injured ranges from 16 to 36. New Mexico officials provide update.
Those who died were two 19-year-old men and a 16-year-old boy, police said. Their names and those of other victims were not yet being released.
Police were asking for bystanders to share videos and other tips as they continued to seek a suspect or suspects in the attack, which occurred at about 10 p.m. on Friday in the city’s Young Park, a music and recreation venue.
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Those who died were two 19-year-old men and a 16-year-old boy, police said. Their names and those of other victims were not yet being released.
Police were asking for bystanders to share videos and other tips as they continued to seek a suspect or suspects in the attack, which occurred at about 10 p.m. on Friday in the city’s Young Park, a music and recreation venue.
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NewsTranscript
00:00This scene video coming in from K Fox as we continue to follow the latest on this mass
00:04shooting investigation. This is over in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Police releasing more
00:10information and they are walking up to the podium here in this news conference.
00:14Do you want to pop it up and listen in?
00:30This is also being televised live and it's on our YouTube page, the City of Las Cruces
00:46YouTube page and the Las Cruces Police Department's Facebook page.
01:00Good morning. Thank you for joining us here today. We're here to talk about the incident
01:14that occurred last night at Young Park here in Las Cruces. We're going to have several speakers,
01:22Mayor Eric Enriquez will be speaking along with Police Chief Jeremy Story and Fire Chief
01:32Michael Daniels. So as I mentioned earlier, we'll be able to take questions, limited questions
01:38following the news conference and the subject expert will speak on that
01:45part to help answer that question. But for now, here's Mayor Eric Enriquez.
01:52Hello, thank you all for being here. Today we mourn a tragic, a senseless,
02:03a horrible event that happened in our city last night. Several individuals were wounded,
02:08three of them deceased that we know, a senseless death. Our hearts go out to the victims,
02:17the family, their loved ones, friends, and to our community, a heartfelt condolences to all.
02:25This is a sad day for our community. As I've said, there's no place for violence like this
02:31in our community and we will continue to work tirelessly to make our community safe with our
02:37Las Cruces Police Department and the other agencies. I want to thank the other agencies
02:43that responded last night, FBI, ATF, Dona Ana County, State Police, all the agencies came
02:49together to assist our local police department and our fire department that responded.
02:55But I want to ask the community to gather together to stand strong and united as we try to heal
03:05and face this tragic event that took place in our city. We need to stand strong. We need to come
03:12together. So please help us to heal and join me in my thoughts and prayers for the families
03:23and those lives that have been lost. Thank you.
03:26And thank you, Mayor. Now, Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story.
03:43Thank you all for being here this morning. I want to begin by thanking our law enforcement
03:48partners who assisted us during this tragedy and the chaos that ensued last night. Thank you to
03:53New Mexico State Police, Dona Ana County Sheriff's Office. Thank you to
03:56the FBI and ATF who were there last night and continue to help us with this investigation.
04:03This news conference is to give an update on a mass casualty incident, a mass shooting that
04:08occurred last night on 321-2025 at Yonge Park, which is located at 1905 Nevada Avenue.
04:16There was an unsanctioned car show at the park prior to the shooting.
04:20The call for the gunshot victims came in at approximately 10 10 p.m. again on 321-2025.
04:27The investigation so far reveals that there was an altercation between two groups of people
04:31and that altercation escalated to gunfire between both groups. Several other people were also
04:37injured in the crossfire. Officers arrived on the scene and began treating people immediately
04:42while trying to deal with the chaos of that situation. Bystanders, some of them have already
04:47started administering treatment. Oscar's fire arrived very quickly and they began immediately
04:54rendering aid despite the fact that the scene was not secure yet. Oscar's fire chief Michael Daniel
05:01will give a quick summary here in a minute of the treatment that was provided and some of the
05:06transport. But as of right now there are 15 people that are injured and three that have passed away.
05:12This is a huge crime scene with a lot of moving parts. It will take time to process it thoroughly
05:18and reopen everything. We're asking for anyone who witnessed the shooting to contact us by calling
05:23575-526-0795 that's Smithsville Valley Regional Dispatch Authority. If anyone has relevant video
05:30or photos we ask that they please upload them to the link that was provided on our Facebook page
05:35so that we can go through that and find the leads and ultimately hold the suspects accountable.
05:42I do want to correct a few things that are circulating especially on social media.
05:46The person holding an AR-15 in the photo that's being distributed has already been interviewed.
05:51At this time we do not believe he was involved in the shooting although it's obviously a problem
05:55that he's out there with an AR-15 in his hand. But at this time we do not believe he was involved
05:59in the shooting. He has been contacted already. Casings have been located throughout the park
06:04and parking lot. Again it's a huge scene. All the casings located so far are handgun caliber
06:10casings. There are no rifle casings consistent with an AK or AR style rifle. In fact there's
06:17no rifle casings that have been located all so far. They're all handgun casings. At this time
06:21Las Cruces Fire Chief Michael Daniels will give a summary of the treatment that was provided
06:25and where patients were transported. Chief.
06:33Good morning and thank you. As of right now last night we had 25 members of Las Cruces Fire
06:40Department that responded to the incident. We had members from our local partners American
06:46Medical Response and Native Air who assisted in the transport and movement of victims as well as
06:53all three local hospitals affected. As Chief Story said we have 18 total victims and as reported in
07:02the news release ages ranging 16 to 36. Seven patients were treated on scene. 11 patients
07:10presented to local departments. Two were pronounced dead on scene. Four were transported locally and
07:16one was flown to El Paso for treatment. The overall status that we have for right now is
07:23three patients are deceased. Seven have been sent from local hospitals to El Paso for further
07:29treatment. Four patients have been treated and released and we don't have a status for the
07:34remaining four patients at this time. We're waiting on updates from our local hospitals. Thank you.
07:43Thank you Chief. This horrendous senseless act is a stark reminder of the blatant disregard
07:50people in New Mexico have for the rule of law and order. It's also a reminder of the
07:56just the utter lack of fear of accountability in New Mexico. As angry as I am right now this
08:02news conference will not be political. There will come a time to talk about the failures that led to
08:08this tragedy and so many others in New Mexico but now is not that time. There are three priorities
08:13right now. The first priority is to support the families and loved ones of those who are affected.
08:19Some of them need prayers as they go through the loss of a loved one and they grieve. Others need
08:25your prayers as their loved ones fight for their lives in hospitals throughout the borderland.
08:30There are a lot of hurting people right now in our community. Our next focus is the apprehension
08:34of those involved and those responsible for this atrocity. We will find each and every one of them
08:39and we will we will hold them accountable to the criminal justice system. We also need to do a
08:45thorough and meticulously documented investigation. This goes hand in hand with holding those people
08:51responsible and accountable. There's still a lot that is unknown and being pieced together
08:57and we will try to answer the questions we can but we will not speculate or give opinions that
09:01are not based on facts. And one last thing I want to say before we get to questions is I'm
09:05very proud of the response of not only our officers but our firefighters disregarding
09:11their own safety to provide treatment and ultimately I believe saving several lives
09:17by rushing in in spite of the fact that they did not know it was safe to do so.
09:21So again chief hats off to your firefighters.
09:26And actually before we get to questions for any of our speakers I would like to mention that
09:35Las Cruces Police and the City of Las Cruces are partnering with the Community Foundation of
09:39Southern New Mexico. They are holding, will be holding a fundraiser for the victims of this
09:46incident. We'll have the information on this live feed and then I'll be able to get that
09:52information to our Facebook page, the Las Cruces Police Department's Facebook page later on today.
09:58If you would when I come up to you mention your name and your affiliation and then ask your
10:06question and we'll start over here on this side. And while Dan is doing that we'll try to have the
10:12appropriate person answer the question if we can again based on what we know at this time.
10:16Hi there this is Johnny Coker with KRWG Public Media. I was just wondering, you mentioned there
10:22was an altercation between two groups. Has there been any arrests in connection with what happened
10:29last night or anyone detained? There have not been arrests or anyone detained. We have leads
10:36that we're pursuing but we are also asking the public or anyone that might have information to
10:40please provide that to assist us. Do you have a sense of how many casings have been collected so
10:49far? Yes sir, I'm Lieutenant Bradley with the Police Department. Right now I don't want to
10:59speculate and give an inaccurate number but we believe that there's somewhere in the neighborhood
11:04of 50-60.
11:07Jason Kirkwood with Alaska Sun News. Chief Story, you mentioned an unsanctioned car show. Was there
11:12any police presence throughout the evening of the car show? And can you characterize the Yonge Park
11:18area related to crime historically? Yeah I don't know for sure the answer to the first part of
11:24your question so I don't want to speculate. This is an issue we've had for a long time. We've been
11:28trying to deal with it. We work with Parks and Recreation to install gates at the park so that
11:32at 11 o'clock when the park closes we can cut it off. This happened before 11 p.m. obviously
11:38but that area has been troubled with crime more so in recent years and I spoke about it during
11:44a committee, an interim committee meeting recently about the level of violence we've seen in that
11:48park. So in spite of some of the efforts we are still struggling with that obviously.
11:54Selena Madrid, KPOPS 14. Can you just quickly confirm was it 14 or 15 injured?
12:01So 15 injured and 3 deceased as of right now. Okay and then could you just elaborate a little
12:06bit more on these unsanctioned car shows? Are they a pretty big problem in our area?
12:12They are and they've kind of ebbed and flow partly with weather and other things but so they become
12:17an issue. We've kind of dealt with it, done some projects and then they they're less of an issue
12:21and then they kind of creep back up. Definitely a problem. This is from the side of KTSM 9 News.
12:29The people who were killed do we know if they were exchanging on fire running away
12:34as the shots were being fired? I cannot answer that one. We temporarily can't provide about this
12:41directly.
12:47How does LCPD handle car shows? Gatherings are legal but at a certain point do police
12:53intervene and do you anticipate changing how that is approached subsequent to this incident?
12:59Well those are difficult circumstances. For one I'm not going to send a single officer in to deal
13:03with something like that and so I have to have the resources to be able to handle it effectively and
13:07that means if they're just gathering and nothing was occurring that was illegal then I have no
13:12issue with that. The problem is what tends to occur is a lot of legal behavior with the vehicles
13:17and then also in this case I mean there were firearms throughout this entire event. Some that
13:22were used in the shooting and just people with firearms willy-nilly throughout the hours leading
13:28up to it based on the video that's been provided so far to us. So dealing with them is difficult
13:33but we have to deal with them with resources, take enforcement action. Our last project that
13:37we ran last year was a zero tolerance approach to the violations that we had.
13:46And then what is your message to the community? Obviously a lot of information circulating
13:50online, we're seeing a lot of video. You mentioned the correction for the person that was holding
13:55that weapon. Can you just, what is your message to them in regards to putting that information
14:00on social media? Is it harmful to the investigation? And I'll lead up with you.
14:05So it can go both ways and I understand people's, one people are trying to help and we appreciate
14:10that so what I would ask that if they're circulating and posting it to at least
14:13share it with us through the link so that we ensure that we have it. But just be careful what
14:18you post because I'm sure most of them don't want to or are not intentionally hampering the
14:23investigation and we will try to put out corrected information if there is misinformation that's
14:29harming the investigation. Additional questions? Hold on, we'll go back to this one.
14:37Justin Garcia, Albuquerque Journal. Can you, I mean you touched on this before but I'm sure
14:43you're aware that these illegal car shows happen very frequently in the undercourt parking lot.
14:47Can you kind of explain, can you kind of explain why there's not more police presence in these
14:54sorts of scenarios? And then my follow-up question is, one of the people who I spoke to who was at
14:59the event mentioned that typically the process is as soon as their racing begins or anything
15:07kind of like during donuts in the parking lot begins that's usually when the police department
15:11comes in and sweeps through the area but that didn't occur this time. Yeah, so the answer is
15:16if I had, well in a perfect world where I had 220 police officers like I'm supposed to, it probably
15:20would have been different last night but I had no units available for most of the night prior to
15:25the shooting and so I mean logistically I got what I got right. If I don't have any officers available
15:30I can't, they can't respond and so I wish it would have been different but it wasn't for lack of
15:38trying or because they didn't want to respond. Hello Miguel Contreras from Univision. With all the
15:46caskets found, are they all born from the same farm or are we looking at multiple
15:51farms being used in this event? We don't know how many farms but definitely more than one,
15:56there's multiple farms that work. This is Josue with Telemundo. Any information, any description of the
16:04person of interest regarding the shooting? We have very limited information right now. I'm not sure
16:09there's anything I can put out that's going to be accurate. We're still trying to vet the
16:12information so if we have something to put out we will update it after the news conference.
16:18Other questions?
16:22This is Bantasat KTSN 9 News. Can you confirm if we were out there last night and all the
16:26shooting occurred in the parking lot? I saw investigators also go to the area of the park
16:32just to look around. I'll have to look to the property insurer.
16:34So to answer your question sir, right now the majority of the shooting did take place in the
16:42parking lot. However, we did find fire cartridge casings throughout the parking and restroom areas
16:48and down towards the streets. We are still continuing to canvas and make sure that there
16:53are no other casings throughout the park. As you're well aware, it's a very large park so it's taking
16:57time to do it meticulously. Okay, back here. Justin Garcia with the Cricket Journal. The city has invested in
17:05park rangers for parks and I'm just curious were they at all involved in this? Was that something
17:09that was on their radar? Can you just kind of fill us in on that? Our park rangers just graduated the
17:14academy. Now they're doing their field training program so unfortunately it takes a while to
17:18produce even someone who's a non-commissioned officer. So they're not out actively on
17:22their own right now. Thank you. Jessica Soudis with the Las Cruces Unused team. If you could,
17:29if you have any details about what might have initiated the altercation and as a follow-up
17:33question, how many people approximately were in the park at this time? So for the first part of
17:38the question, we know that there was some type of ill will between these groups prior to last night.
17:45So they had some issues before and it escalated last night. As far as an estimate, do we have
17:51an estimate? Approximately 200, but again that's an approximation. Any additional questions?
18:01Johnny with KRW. Just to follow up a little on what Justin was talking about, you know besides
18:07the park rangers, what steps has LCPD taken in recent months to improve safety at parks, especially
18:13at night? Has there been any sort of effort in that way? Yeah, so I already mentioned at Young Park
18:18specifically, we work with Parks and Recreation to install those gates so we can close off the
18:22parking lot when it closes by ordinance. And so we've been doing that. Unfortunately somebody hit
18:27one of the gates pretty early on and it's damaged and has to be repaired. The other thing that we're
18:31in the process of is installing technology in the parks as part of our Roadside Crime Center,
18:35which is already paid for but unfortunately has not been installed yet. That would have been very,
18:39helpful in this situation, but it wasn't there yet. Any others? Okay, I think we're done. Again,
18:48remember we'll be posting a link on our Police Department's Facebook page,
18:54the link to the fundraiser. We appreciate any shares you can help with that.
18:58And also as far as another news conference, we probably will have another one. We haven't
19:02scheduled it right now. Keep watching the news releases and or the information on our Facebook
19:08page. Thank you.
19:13All right, a live news conference there underway over in New Mexico on this mass shooting. As you
19:18heard investigators say, they will likely hold another news conference later to provide updates
19:24as the numbers have been changing. Again, you can see the information on the left-hand side of your
19:29screen and on the right-hand side, that is some of the video provided by KFOX there showing a very
19:36large scene around the park. Now, as of right now, police do say that three people have died
19:41and 15 others were injured. Those victims ranging in age from 16 to 36. As for the three that passed
19:49away, they are 19 years old, 19 years old and 16 years old. This all happening at an unsanctioned
19:56car show at the park at the time of the shooting where there was an altercation. Police saying they
20:01do not have any suspects at this time, but they are following leads. Again, as more details come
20:08in, we will make sure to bring those to you here on Live Now from Fox.