Amanda Frias Rosas and her husband were picking up a birthday cake for her son when police say her former boyfriend fatally shot them in a Las Vegas supermarket, a witness told grand jurors recently.
At the time, Alejandro Estrada, 43, was concerned about going to jail for unpaid child support, police have said.
Amanda Frias Rosas and her husband Victor Frias Rosas died after a gunman opened fire inside the Smith’s at 9750 S. Maryland Parkway.
The former couple’s son turned 12 on May 12, the day of the shooting.
Amanda and Victor Frias Rosas worked together at Smith’s but they were off the day of the shooting and were there to get the boy’s birthday cake, Nicole Hinkle, a Smith’s cashier, told the grand jury.
Faced with financial problems, Estrada had come to believe that it was necessary to kill the mother of his children, Metropolitan Police Department homicide Detective Brandon Copley testified to a grand jury June 25.
Police found a red folder with court papers related to the child custody dispute and pictures drawn by Estrada’s children near Amanda Frias Rosas’ body, according to Copley. Estrada later said he wanted police to “know why he did what he did,” the detective said.
Estrada told police that his financial problems “all came to a head approximately a couple weeks prior to the shooting,” Copley said. “He had received another notice that he would be going to court for his children, you know, as a result of Amanda seeking child support. It was at that time that he made the decision that she was going to be a constant nuisance in his life so he had to kill her.”
Noel Hernandez, Estrada’s roommate, said the defendant blamed his ex for stymieing his purchase of a condo.
Because of the child support issues, “the loan officer had to stop everything and he lost a lot of money because of the down payment and everything,” Hernandez testified to grand jurors.
In the weeks leading up to the shooting, Estrada quit his job, paid his roommate rent that he owed and began moving his belongings, according to Copley’s account of the suspect’s interview.
The day of the shooting, he broke into the Frias Rosas’ house, ransacked it and not finding them, decided to go to the Smith’s where they worked, Copley said Estrada told investigators.
Estrada walked to the supermarket and found the couple, said the detective.
“He says initially when he makes entry he immediately recognizes Amanda and Victor,” said the detective. “He said he then went around the produce section waiting for the right moment to shoot them. And I asked him what that moment was and he said a moment in which like their backs were towards him.”
After the shooting, witnesses tackled and subdued the gunman.
Darius Alston, one of the men who stepped up, indicated in testimony that Estrada pointed a gun at another man who was fighting him.
Metro has said Estrada told investigators that had bystanders not intervened, he planned to “shoot it out” with police.
Asked if Estrada expressed any regret, Copley said, “He knew that murdering people was bad but he had felt that over the last few years everything that Amanda had been trying to do with him in the form of obtaining financial support for their children kind of justified this action.”
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.
