ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The murder of an 11-year-old as he left an Isotopes game has sparked outrage throughout the state over gun violence and ignited a political firestorm over how to solve it. At the center of it all, there’s a grieving family.
“He was very outspoken. He was very lovable, everybody in the family. He was everybody’s best friend in the family,” Angelica Amaro, a family friend, said.
An 11-year-old full of life: that’s how the family of Froylan Villegas will always remember him. “His dream was to become a horse trainer. He was going to be the best of the best,” Amaro said.
The young boy was shot and killed in a suspected road rage shooting last Wednesday near Isotopes Park. Police said someone in a Dodge Durango fired 17 shots at the car he was in when leaving the game, killing Froylan and wounding his 24-year-old cousin, Tatiana.
“The vehicle just pulled up on the side of them and started shooting,” Amaro said.
All of it happened with Froylan’s mother and baby brother in the back seat.
“She’s devastated. She has a hard time trying to sleep right now because of what is going on and having to witness your son be murdered right in front of you.”
Tatiana, who was driving at the time of the shooting, suffered several gunshot wounds. She’s now left with a serious spinal cord injury and a long road to recovery. “She’s devastated, like the wounds are nothing compared to how she feels about Froylan not being in this world right now,” Amaro said.
Two cousins, who were said to have been inseparable, have now been separated forever. “He was so outspoken with Tatiana and kept her on her toes and let her know the real thing whether she liked it or not, that was the love they had for each other was more like a brother-sister type of deal.”
Nearly a week later, the family still has no answers on who pulled the trigger, only making this whole nightmare worse.
“For someone to go and shoot up a vehicle with no remorse and out of nowhere, the family is trying to figure out who would do something like this, but also, they want justice,” Amaro said.
Amaro said the Villegas family is not for or against the governor’s public health order, they just want justice.
A GoFundMe has been created for the family; click here to see it.