Key Takeaways
- A man shot and killed a married couple at a Las Vegas grocery store after ambushing them.
- Two strangers, Merconie Clark and Darius Alston, bravely tackled and subdued the shooter, preventing further harm.
- The suspect, Alejandro Estrada, faced charges including two counts of murder and aggravated stalking with a deadly weapon.
- Police praised the civilians’ courage, highlighting their quick response in the face of danger.
- Estrada’s children were not present during the incident, but he had a history of issues related to child support.
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LAS VEGAS, NV — Two unarmed strangers tackled and disarmed an armed man at a Las Vegas Smith’s grocery store on Tuesday after he ambushed his ex-girlfriend and her new husband and shot them both to death, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
The shooting was reported just before 11:30 a.m. at the Smith’s at 9750 S. Maryland Parkway. Responding officers found three civilians subduing the suspect near the pharmacy drive-thru exit and took him into custody without further incident. Officers entered the store and located the victims, Victor Frias Rosas and Amanda Frias Rosas, a married couple who both worked at the store. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
Police identified the suspect as Alejandro Estrada, 43. According to a police report cited by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Estrada and Amanda Frias Rosas had previously dated and shared two children. Court records show Estrada was the subject of an active child support case and was facing a June 1 contempt hearing for failing to consistently pay $342 a month in child support. Two weeks before the shooting, Estrada told his roommate he believed he was going to jail over the unpaid support and was making arrangements to quit his job and leave town.
Doorbell footage cited in the police report shows Estrada leaving his home around 6:45 a.m. Tuesday. He arrived at the Frias Rosas home around 11:00 a.m., where investigators later found the master bedroom ransacked, a surveillance camera torn off the wall, and a bullet-shattered rear sliding glass door. Estrada then walked to the grocery store and, according to police, closed in on the couple as they turned into aisle four before shooting them multiple times.
As shoppers ran, two men who had never met before decided to stop him. Merconie Clark, 49, a Southern California truck driver, had stopped in for supplies before picking up an Amazon load. Darius Alston, 28, a barber at the next-door Diamond Cutz Barbershop and a 2016 Liberty High School graduate, had been helping the mother of his children shop with their two young kids.
Clark said he heard shots, ducked for cover, and then heard a second volley. A Smith’s employee pointed out the shooter as he walked through the store. “I don’t know what happened,” Clark said. “I just walk over towards him, and he pulls out his gun, and we start wrestling for the gun.”
Alston had taken his children outside and returned briefly for his girlfriend’s phone when he saw Clark struggling with the shooter. “Now Clark’s life is in danger. So now I go to help Clark out,” Alston said. He struck the suspect and helped pin him to the ground while Clark pulled the firearm away. Clark credited Alston with saving his life.
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When Estrada was arrested, police recovered a .45-caliber handgun, a 9mm semi-automatic carbine, and several loaded magazines for both firearms. He has been charged with two counts of murder, eight counts of discharging a firearm within a structure or vehicle in a prohibited area, and one count each of burglary and aggravated stalking with a deadly weapon. Justice of the Peace Suzan Baucum found probable cause for the charges and ordered him held without bail. Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told reporters the death penalty is “on the table.”
LVMPD Homicide Lt. Robert Price said the civilians who stopped Estrada showed “tremendous courage.” Estrada was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. The couple’s children were not at the store at the time of the shooting.
What stopped this attack was raw civilian courage. It takes something rare to hear gunshots and run toward them instead of away. Clark and Alston had no firearm, no badge, and no obligation to do anything but leave. They closed the distance anyway, and likely saved every other shopper in that store from whatever came next. Just one day earlier on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a state trooper and a civilian Marine veteran made the same call when an active shooter opened fire on rush-hour traffic. People like these are the reason attacks like this end in minutes instead of hours.
