Customers disarmed and restrained the accused gunman after two married store employees were killed during a visit on their day off.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The prosecution of a man accused of killing his former partner and her husband inside a Las Vegas grocery store includes a rare turning point: Customers confronted the armed suspect outside, separated him from his weapons and held him until police arrived.
The intervention ended the immediate danger after Amanda Frias Rosas and Victor Frias Rosas were fatally shot at a Smith’s Food & Drug store on May 12, authorities said. Prosecutors later charged Alejandro Estrada, 43, with 13 felonies, including two counts of murder with the use of a deadly weapon. Estrada pleaded not guilty. Police say an additional gun and loaded magazines were recovered from his backpack, and an arrest report alleges he had intended to confront responding officers if he was not stopped.
Surveillance video showed shoppers and other people moving toward Estrada as he left the store near Maryland Parkway and Silverado Ranch Boulevard. Merconie Clark described trying to pull a gun away from him while another man helped keep him on the ground. Darius Alston said he joined after seeing that Clark was in danger. District Attorney Steve Wolfson later said the men took the lead in disarming Estrada and that the outcome could have been worse without them.
The struggle outside followed panic inside. Employees and customers heard gunfire, abandoned their work areas and ran for exits or cover. In recordings released by Las Vegas police, callers spoke quickly to dispatchers while trying to explain where the shots had come from and whether the gunman remained in the building. One employee said two workers had been shot and suggested the attack appeared targeted. Another caller told police that customers had the suspect pinned down near the pharmacy area.
Body-camera footage recorded the first officers reaching the scene. They found people standing around Estrada, who was on the ground, and moved to secure a firearm. Officers then entered the store to search for additional victims or attackers. Amanda, 40, and Victor were pronounced dead. Police did not report that either of the two children Amanda shared with Estrada was present.
The couple worked at the Smith’s but had gone there on their day off, according to accounts based on court records and the investigation. They were reportedly buying a birthday cake for Amanda and Estrada’s son, who turned 12 that day. Their daughter turned 10 two days later. Amanda and Victor had married in 2025, and the store was a workplace where employees knew them as a couple.
Only after the scene was secured did investigators begin assembling the alleged purpose and preparation behind the gunfire. Police say Estrada had been involved in a dispute with Amanda over custody and child support. Court documents cited by local authorities showed he was required to pay $342 a month and had accumulated $2,804.26 in unpaid support. A hearing on the matter was set for June 1.
An arrest report says Estrada told detectives that he believed he might be jailed because he had fallen behind. Investigators wrote that he blamed Amanda for disrupting his finances and believed the support case had prevented him from completing a condominium purchase. Police attributed those statements to Estrada after his arrest; they are not findings by a judge or jury about his state of mind.
Grand jury testimony later introduced a detail that prosecutors may use to connect the family-court conflict to the killings. Homicide Detective Brandon Copley testified that Estrada said he carried a red folder containing custody documents into the store. After Amanda and Victor had been shot, Copley said, Estrada retrieved the folder from his backpack and placed it next to or under Amanda’s arm.
According to the testimony, Estrada wanted the documents to tell police why he had carried out the shooting. The folder’s alleged placement turned paperwork from a separate domestic case into evidence in the homicide prosecution. Prosecutors have not suggested that the records themselves justified any violence. Rather, they contend that the documents help show Estrada’s alleged focus on the support dispute and his claimed reason for targeting Amanda.
The police investigation also traced Estrada’s movements before he entered the store. Surveillance footage showed him leaving his residence at about 6:45 a.m. Several hours later, video placed him walking toward the neighborhood where Amanda and Victor lived. Police found their front doorbell camera torn down, a rear sliding door broken and a bedroom in disarray. A cartridge was found outside, and a bullet was recovered from the living room.
Police say Estrada admitted going to the home and breaking in while the couple was away. The report alleges that he damaged the bedroom in anger before continuing to the Smith’s shopping center. Investigators compared ammunition evidence from the house with the weapons recovered during his arrest. Charges arising from the home include burglary and home invasion while possessing a firearm or deadly weapon.
Additional surveillance showed Estrada arriving near the grocery store roughly an hour after he was seen heading toward the couple’s neighborhood. Investigators say he walked to the produce section, found Amanda and Victor and waited for a moment when they had turned away and no one else was immediately beside them. Nine cartridge cases were recovered inside the store, according to police.
The prosecution’s account includes steps Estrada allegedly took before May 12. His roommate, Noel Hernandez, testified that Estrada had spoken about moving out and expected to be jailed because of unpaid support. Police reports say Estrada quit his job, destroyed electronic items and deleted social-media accounts shortly before the shooting. Copley told the grand jury that Estrada described making arrangements during the previous week or two.
Those assertions will face testing through the court process. Defense attorneys can challenge the admissibility and meaning of Estrada’s reported statements, question witnesses and dispute the prosecution’s interpretation of the physical and video evidence. No conviction has been entered, and the not-guilty plea requires the state to prove every charge beyond a reasonable doubt.
A Clark County grand jury indicted Estrada in June on two murder counts, nine firearm-discharge counts, burglary with a weapon and home invasion with a weapon. The indictment transferred the case into District Court without a preliminary hearing in Justice Court. Estrada remains accused rather than convicted, and the available reports did not identify a trial date.
During a July arraignment, Estrada’s defense agreed to a waiver that extended the period in which prosecutors may decide whether to seek the death penalty. He pleaded not guilty to all 13 counts and was due back in court Aug. 5. The Smith’s store, meanwhile, reopened May 27 after being closed for more than two weeks.
The intervention by shoppers does not resolve the charges, but it is likely to remain an important part of the case’s public record. Their actions preserved weapons and other evidence for investigators, brought the suspect into immediate custody and, according to the district attorney, may have stopped the danger from moving beyond the grocery-store parking lot.
Author note: Last updated Aug. 3, 2026.