Desiree Rivas appears in her cheerleading uniform in a photo shared by her high school after she was shot and killed as she left a house party in May 2023. (Cesar Chavez High School)
A beloved high school cheerleader was shot dead at 17 this weekend as she left a party in Phoenix.
Désirée Rivas died just after midnight on Sunday. Officers found her outside a residence near 91st Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road with a gunshot wound and nothing else to do, according to local Fox affiliate KSAZ. No arrests were made during the shooting.
“Desiree was a beloved member of our student body and an active member of our spiritual lineage,” Cesar Chavez High School wrote in a Facebook post mourning the teenager’s tragic death on Monday. “She will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved her. Désirée passed away after being the victim of a senseless act of violence last weekend. She loved her peers and was a compassionate and caring member of our student community. .
His cheering squad also shared words via social media.
“It is with the heaviest of hearts that I post about the tragic loss of our amazing friend, athlete and student Desiree,” CCHS Spirit Line wrote on Instagram. “Our hearts are shattered into a million pieces. There will be additional counselors on campus tomorrow to help us through this tremendous loss. May Dessy rest in peace and be surrounded by love and light. We love you, Desiree.
A neighbor who claimed to have heard gunshots on the night of the murder said several shots were fired and the barrage of bullets sounded like they were moving – that the location of the shots at the over time seemed to change audibly, according to the Arizona Republic. . The newspaper did not name the neighbor.
“She had friends who stayed behind and helped her, and I was there with her,” the unnamed neighbor reportedly said. “We couldn’t sleep at all last night. I couldn’t sleep at all. I kept thinking about the mother and what she was going through.
In an interview with KSAZ, neighbor April Stokes provided additional details about the shooting and its immediate aftermath.
“I heard five, maybe six shots, two different guns, you know. It seemed pretty close,” she told the TV station – later adding: “I saw these boys – who looked like teenagers – running across the street there. From one house to another.
Stokes said it was unclear whether the two figures she saw running in the night ran away in fear or because they fired the shots.
Dozens of community members came out to honor the slain girl during a vigil at Cesar Chavez Park on Monday night.
“She touched so many people,” her father, Danny Rivas, said at the vigil, in comments reported by KXAS. “I mean, you never know how the relationships are at school. They come home and they don’t talk about it because they’re doing homework and stuff like that. It lifted my spirits a bit. I have to spend this week making sure everything goes well for her because I want to send her back properly.
According to the Republic, the detectives would not have a suspect in the homicide of the young girl.
In coverage of the memorial by local CBS affiliate KPNX, Danny Rivas remembered his daughter as “a beautiful person and an incredible soul.” The grieving father added: “She was a role model for everyone. She was one of the people you wanted to be around.
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