The pain of losing her 12-year-old son won’t ever leave Martina Suarez, but a memorial gathering Saturday with hundreds in attendance served as a reminder about how loved he was.

“It’s already been a month and I honestly didn’t even want anything else,” Suarez said. “I didn’t do anything to organize this, so I don’t know how they got so many people here.”

Christofer Suarez, a student at Smith Middle School in North Las Vegas, was walking to school near East Owens Avenue and North 21st Street on Oct. 3 when he was struck by an SUV and thrown into a fence. He died three days later at University Medical Center.

A proud member of the mariachi program at Smith Middle School, called Mariachi Los Bravos, Suarez was a confident young bandolon player, according to Thomas Garibay, a guitar teache

See Full Page