Early Friday morning a shooting at the University or New Mexico left one 14-year-old dead and another in critical care. The campus was in lockdown for over 10 hours. U.S. Marshals arrested the suspect Friday afternoon in Los Lunas, 18-year-old John Fuentes.
It's not an isolated incident, in New Mexico or nationwide.
"This should not be a normal thing. It’s not normal but we’ve normalized it to the extent that it’s now happening at a larger rate on our college campuses, like I’ve grown up with gun violence," said Bo Wilson, volunteer leader with Students Demand Action in New Mexico,.
There have been 33 school shootings across the U.S. in 2025 so far, 19 of which have been on college campuses, according to a data analysis done by CNN of incident reports from Gun Violence Archive, Education Week, and Every Town for Gun Safety.
Wilson said that it’s time to hold lawmakers accountable and youth need to be part of the solution because they are the most impacted by gun violence. He also had advice for those students who were on campus during the shooting,
"First off reaching out to their community members and connecting with each other…they went through something that was pretty traumatic," said Wilson. "But if they want to get involved and they’re frustrated I say reach out to their lawmakers, legislators, and senators and tell them of their frustrations".
Among the people on campus were incoming freshmen for orientation and high school students attending an engineering academy. UNM police and state police helped evacuate them.
UNM President Garnett Stokes sent a letter to the university community with links to mental health resources.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
