October 4, 2026 - 6:35 pm

A mother identified her son as the teen who was shot and killed at First Friday in downtown Las Vegas.

Carth Onasi Jacobs-Rodgers, 15, was at the popular Arts District event when he was killed, according to his mother Tara Mesaric-Rodgers. In a Sunday text message, she said Jacobs-Rodgers attended Desert Pines High School, was the eldest of nine siblings and loved boxing and basketball.

“He was loyal to family and friends,” Mesaric-Rodgers said, “so loyal it is why he didn’t come home that night and why he will never come home to us again.” His name, Carth Onasi, came from a Star Wars video game that Mesaric-Rodgers’ husband loved playing, she added.

Las Vegas police have said officers heard gunfire and found three teenagers with gunshot wounds near the corner of Charleston Boulevard and Main Street just after 10:15 p.m. on Friday. One gunshot victim died after being transported to a hospital, police said.

“It appears there was a group of individuals that got into a physical altercation,” Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Robert Price said at a media briefing early Saturday. “During that physical altercation, one individual pulls out a firearm, starts shooting into the crowd and ends up hitting three of the individuals in the altercation.”

The suspect fled before officers arrived to the scene, Price said, and investigators had no information to conclude the fight was gang-related. Price encouraged anyone with any information or video from the scene to reach out to Metro homicide detectives or to call Crime Stoppers.

Mesaric-Rodgers said her son’s friends needed him on Friday night “and he was not going to leave them to fend for themselves.” She described what happened as a “wrong place wrong time” situation, adding that she does not know why the unplanned fight happened.

“He did not deserve this,” she said. “We all miss him more than words can describe and love him more than he will ever know.”

Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.