In the fading light of a Thursday evening in Tucson, Arizona, a tragedy unfolded at Lakeside Park that would cut short the lives of three young men. On November 8, 2018, 16-year-old Carlos Ross, along with 21-year-old Matthew Favela, drove to the park on the city's east side for a prearranged meeting. There, they were to meet with 16-year-old Amonn Sandoval.
The gathering, however, would soon escalate into a scene of violence that shattered the park's tranquility.
Shortly before 5:00 p.m., a confrontation erupted between two groups of young men in the west parking lot of the park. A brief and tense conversation quickly devolved into an exchange of gunfire. When the chaos subsided, three figures lay on the ground with gunshot wounds. Community members rushed to help, with one person administering CPR to one of the victims before police and paramedics arrived. Despite the immediate medical intervention, one of the victims was pronounced dead at the scene. Carlos Ross and another victim were rushed to Banner University Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, but they too succumbed to their wounds shortly after arrival. The third fatality was identified as Amonn Sandoval.
The Tucson Police Department launched a triple homicide investigation. Detectives learned that Ross and Favela had arrived at the park with two other friends, who were unharmed and remained at the scene to cooperate with the investigation. An unknown male who was with Sandoval fled before police arrived. While gang detectives assisted in the initial investigation, authorities stated that the incident did not appear to be gang-related.
The investigation led to the arrests of three other teenagers who were part of the group involved in the deadly shootout. Filomeno Edwardo Flores, Maki Dion Riley, and Aaron Rodriguez, who were 15 or 16 years old at the time, were taken into custody and faced charges in connection with the killings. In the subsequent legal proceedings, Filomeno Edwardo Flores pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery and was sentenced to seven years of probation with electronic monitoring. Maki Dion Riley pleaded guilty to manslaughter and also received a sentence of seven years of probation. Aaron Rodriguez was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to five years in prison.
