LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Merconie Clark was shopping for lunch when gunfire erupted inside a Smith’s grocery store near Maryland Parkway on May 12. Now, two weeks later, he says the memory of that day hasn’t faded.
Clark was one of two shoppers who tackled the alleged gunman after a shooting that killed two employees. He is now speaking out about the moment that changed his life and the trauma he says he still lives with every day.
“It was just screams, gunshot, panic,” Clark said.
Just before noon on May 12, a gunman opened fire inside the Smith’s, killing two employees, husband and wife Victor and Amanda Frias Rosas. Police called it a targeted act. The suspect, Alejandra Estrada, the father of Amanda’s two children, was armed with multiple guns and fired repeatedly before walking out of the store, according to police.
He never made it off the property.
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‘I initially just grabbed the gun’
Clark, a truck driver from California, said he ran when the shooting started, helping others to safety. But then he stopped when he heard a woman scream, “That’s him.”
“I don’t realize it until I hear one of the employees say, ‘That’s the shooter.’ And when I turn around, he sees me, he hears her. And that’s when he goes for his gun,” Clark said.
Clark said he locked eyes with the shooter.
“I see him. He sees me. He hears her. He pulls out the gun. I immediately probably take about two, I’ll say three to four steps towards him real quick. And I initially just grabbed the gun,” he said.
Clark said he wrestled the suspect to the ground as they struggled over the weapon. Holding him there, he called out for help. That’s when Darius Alston, another shopper, came rushing in, joining the fight, Clark said.
“I was so relieved that he was there,” he said.
The video showed the moment after as the two strangers embraced.
‘I had a panic attack’
Asked what was running through his mind as he tussled with the gunman, Clark said it was not about himself.
“The safety of everybody around me. I wasn’t thinking about myself, so it was not me. It was about making sure he wasn’t going to do this to anybody else. So it was like, I had to stop him. I knew it,” he said.
Days later, Clark said reality had set in.
“I held my wife, and that’s when the emotions came about that I could not have been there for her. I could have never seen my daughter go to school in the morning,” he said.
Clark said his day-to-day life has changed since the shooting.
“I went to the grocery store just the other day, and I when I went to the beverage section. I literally had a panic attack because I saw the same beverage I was about to grab at the same time of the shooting. And I heard at that moment, the gunshots in my head,” he said.
When asked what he wants the community to know, Clark said people should help when they are able.
“That if we’re able to help, like I said before, we should help,” he said.
Clark said he would do it all over again.
“I wish I could have done more. Even though my wife says I shouldn’t have done it and I should have just protected myself, I still would do this. I wouldn’t have changed anything,” he said.
Clark is now recovering from the injuries he suffered that day, both physical and emotional. His family has started a GoFundMe to help with his recovery.
Outside the Smiths’, flowers, candles, and a small tribute remain to honor the two lives lost.
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