Hillcrest Park to commemorate gun-violence victims

Christine Gallegos will always remember Marcos Ramirez as a big jokester and a great guy. He was a role model, too, she said, the kind of guy who stood up for those who didn't have a voice.

"He had a bit of a rough start," said Gallegos, a family friend who knew Ramirez since he was in junior high. "His mom was a teen mom, so they kind of grew up together."

After high school, Ramirez joined the Army as a paratrooper and then returned to his hometown of Clovis to take care of his mom, Nicole Ramirez.

Then on Thursday, the 26-year-old was shot to death in the Hilltop Plaza Shopping Center parking lot. Police have charged four teenagers with murder.

A mother losing her son to gun violence is tragic, Gallegos said on Monday.

"But it's just as tragic that four teenage boys threw their lives away. Anybody that knew them are victims as well. Everybody has to live with these holes in our lives," she said.

Gallegos, other friends and family members of Nicole Ramirez want to help the victims heal as best they can.

"If we don't make something positive out of this, then it was just for nothing," Gallegos said on Monday.

And so they've invited the community to honor the memory of all victims of gun violence. A gathering is planned from noon to 2 p.m. Wednesday at Hillcrest Park.

Gallegos said everyone is invited to wear black and yellow. The colors of Marcos' favorite football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, are also "the colors of remembrance and hope," she wrote in an emailed invitation to the community.

"Bring signs honoring your loved ones lost to gun violence, and let your voice be heard. Let us march with a united front, a symphony of strength and solidarity, declaring that enough is enough."

Gallegos is aware of reports that her best friend's son was killed in what court records say was a gun deal that "went bad." There is evidence suggesting Ramirez was trying to sell a gun to the teenagers, which is in violation of New Mexico law.

But she points out that the gun in question never left Ramirez' car; she speculates he wasn't aware he was meeting juveniles at the parking lot, which would explain why he didn't bring the gun with him when he walked to their car where he was shot.

But whatever happened last week, she said, is past. "Nobody's perfect," she said. "We have to make a difference now."

She hopes Wednesday's gathering will be an opportunity to remind parents to "check their kids' backpacks ... know where their kids are at."

"This senseless act of violence has claimed the lives of far too many, leaving behind grieving families and shattered dreams," she wrote in her community email "We stand united in mourning the loss of Marcos and every victim whose life has been cut short by gun violence.

"We are called to honor their memory by transforming our pain into action. Let us rise together, a force for change, and reclaim our streets from the grip of senseless violence. We must be the change we yearn to see, the guardians of peace and justice."