Cruz Aguirre, 42, a Latino male from Hobbs, New Mexico, was shot on July 2, 2025, after stepping into a volatile scene on West Roxana Street. He was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and was taken to Covenant Health Hobbs Hospital, where he died soon after; the funeral home recorded his passing as July 3.
According to investigators, the violence began as a physical domestic dispute. When the 42-year-old man tried to intervene, the confrontation turned deadly and he was struck by gunfire.
In the chaos that followed, the assailant forced a 33-year-old woman, identified as Elizabeth Salazar, into a vehicle and fled, triggering an immediate search and urgent public appeals.
Police named 44-year-old Leroy Smith as the suspect. Detectives obtained a first-degree murder warrant after the 42-year-old victim succumbed to his injuries, and officers arrested Smith shortly thereafter, booking him into the Hobbs Detention Center. Reports describe the arrest as the culmination of a brief manhunt that began the night of the shooting and ended without further incident.
In the days that followed, the community learned more about the 42-year-old man whose final act was to try to stop violence. Funeral notices and memorial postings marked his passing and traced his roots from Chihuahua to Hobbs, where family and friends gathered to remember him and to plan his services, even as police continued asking for tips to complete the picture of what happened on that hot July night.
