Baseball coach speaks out after player dies in Las Cruces mass shooting

By Alyssa Munoz

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    LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KOAT) — A shooting at Young Park in Las Cruces left 18 people hurt, and three who have died.

Las Cruces Police said the shooting happened after a fight between two groups broke out at an unsanctioned car show.

The injured victims range from 16 to 36 years old including nine males and six females. The three victims who died were 18-year-old Jason Gomez, 19-year-old Dominick Estrada and 16-year-old Andrew “AJ” Madrid.

Madrid was on the JV baseball team at Centennial High School. Both his teammates and coaches found out about his death at a game in Carlsbad.

“The range of emotions that I myself have gone through have ranged wildly from, you know, extreme anger to extreme heartbreak. It’s a tough one. There’s no play. There’s no book that you can read that kind of has a playbook of how to deal with a situation like this,” said Rusty Evans, Centennial’s head baseball coach. “As a program, we’re going to move forward, in respect to AJ. Ultimately, he was a dirtbag on the field. He, you know, he was always uniform, was always dirty. He played with his hair on fire, like I said. We’re going to play in his honor.”

LCPD has arrested four people: 20-year-old Tomas Rivas, two 17-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy. Evans said it’s unfortunate to see juveniles on both sides of this tragedy.

“I think, in general, there’s a lot of good kids and AJ was definitely part of that group. Ultimately, choices are made. Unfortunately, some of those choices have consequences not just for yourself, but also for innocent bystanders as well. To reflect on the youth, you know, I have optimism for the youth, I really do,” Evans said.

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