10-05-2025
This man captured 2 key moments on video from the El Camaron Gigante shooting in Glendale
He was walking through the patio area of El Camaron Gigante, filming the cleanup after the dance party. The event had ended early, not due to the rain, but because of a fight that broke out in the crowd. That's when Derek Molina heard the gunshots.
They were coming from the parking lot. He began shouting for people to get down and take cover. As he ducked for safety himself, his thumb hit the record button on his iPhone, capturing the moment on video.
Molina, 39, who posts video on his NinoBoyTV Instagram channel, didn't initially realize he was recording. But once he did realize it, Molina kept recording.
Molina inadvertently recorded two key moments of the May 4 shooting at El Camaron Gigante near downtown Glendale, an incident that left three people dead. The shooting occurred during a monthly outdoor dance event and community fair known as On A Sunday Afternoon.
He captured a fight inside the event that police believe led to the later gunplay. Molina also captured the sounds of the gunfire and its aftermath, including him running to aid a victim.
Molina, in an interview with The Arizona Republic, said after a second barrage of shots, he noticed the entrance gate to the patio of the El Camaron Gigante restaurant was still open. He shouted at someone to close it.
He then moved behind a cart that had served as a bar and took cover.
Molina briefly set his phone on the bar, using the camera like a periscope to get a glimpse of what was happening while he stayed low.
There was a pause in the shots. Though Molina said he wasn't sure if the incident was over.
Then he spotted a man stumbling near a row of portable toilets. 'He's hit. He's hit,' Molina says in the video. 'Call 911.'
The man was leaning against a wall writhing in pain.
Molina said he was still in the line of fire should a bullet come through the open gate. He helped lift the man and guide him behind a wall, shouting for others to move aside. Someone handed Molina a T-shirt, and another person gave him a sweater.
'I twisted it up as tight as I could above the wound,' he said. 'I had him put pressure on it.'
Two women who told Molina they were training to be nurses stepped in and took over tending to the injured man. Molina said he saw no blood gushing. He saw that as a positive sign that maybe the bullet had passed through.
Molina went outside the grounds to alert someone about the injured man.
The scene, he said, was 'people screaming and chaos and all that.'
He didn't go far before he saw a person on the ground who wasn't moving.
Molina said he moved quickly through the scene until he found a paramedic. That person got the attention of a police officer who walked with Molina back to the injured man.
The man was in pain, but didn't appear in serious medical trouble.
The man had been in the portable restroom when a bullet punctured it and hit him in the rear, Molina said. The two talked and eventually found dark humor in the situation:.
'It put a smile on his face,' he said.
Eventually, police started clearing the scene and ordering everyone to go home.
When Molina got home, he said he started reviewing the video he shot.
'At first I didn't want to put it up,' he said.
Then he learned the ages of the victims — two were 21, and one was just 17. Two of them, including the 17-year-old, were brothers.
'That changed my perspective,' he said. 'That changed the narrative.'
He decided to post the two videos in case it helped police figure out what happened.
His instinct was right. Glendale police later asked for the public's help in identifying three individuals described as 'persons of interest.' The photos released by the department appeared to be taken from the NinoBoyTV video showing the fight inside the event.
Molina didn't post all of the video he shot. He said police have not contacted him asking to review his footage.
During the On A Sunday Afternoon event, Molina was onstage filming people dancing when the fight broke out in the crowd. His video showed a woman appearing to shout for security to remove four men.
A man standing behind the woman appears to throw an object at the four men. One of them runs toward him.
Molina said he didn't think the fight was notable. 'It was a fight that went on,' he said. 'OK. Cool. And everyone just goes on their merry way.'
Police later stated that the two groups involved had a history of 'bad blood,' and that the altercation at the OASA event ultimately escalated into the gunfire outside the venue.
Glendale police said that as of May 9 there were no arrests in the shooting.
Molina did not know anyone involved in the fight during the event. He did not know the victims who died. He did not know the man he tended to.
Though, he said, the two were connected through social media. The man Molina helped posted on Instagram that he was 'recovering well each day that passes and I'll be back on my feet within time.'
The Republic was not able to reach that man for comment. Glendale police did not release his name, nor any of the injured individuals.
Molina said he was glad to have helped. 'I didn't think anything was going through my mind at that moment but to get that person out of the way,' he said.
He also keeps thinking of those who died that day. 'If I could go back to that moment, if I could go back to that night,' he said. 'I would give my life for these kids to go home.'
Seeking information: Glendale police want to talk to these people about mass shooting at restaurant
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: His camera was recording when shots broke out in downtown Glendale
