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Source: Shooter at murder victim's funeral tried to kill witness
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
A man who shot seven people at a slaying victim's funeral Wednesday night was trying to kill a witness to the slaying, a police source said Thursday.
The source, who was briefed on the incident, said the target of the shooting was Steven Velasquez, 23.
Velasquez was attending 21-year-old Andres Elena's funeral at Palm Mortuary in downtown Las Vegas about 7 p.m. when a man at the service pulled a handgun and began firing at him.
Velasquez was not struck. Six other adults and one teenager were shot, but none of their injuries appeared life-threatening.
"This guy (the suspect) obviously sprayed a whole bunch of other people in the process," the source said.
Elena was stabbed to death on a Strip pedestrian walkway June 25 during a fight with another group of adult Hispanic men. Velasquez, a friend of Elena's, also was stabbed that night.
The source said Velasquez was targeted because he cooperated with the investigation into Elena's death.
Victor Quijano, 25, was arrested and charged with murder in the stabbing, but Velasquez also identified several other suspects now wanted by police, the source said.
According to a police report, the June 25 altercation between Quijano's group and Elena's group began at Planet Hollywood, when Velasquez offended a woman with Quijano.
The two groups exchanged words, and security officers kicked the men out, the report said.
Later that night, the two groups ran into each other on a pedestrian walkway between the MGM Grand and New York-New York.
A fight erupted, and Velasquez is alleged to have broken a glass bottle over the head of one man.
Quijano then stabbed both Velasquez and Elena, according to the report. Quijano admitted to detectives that he stabbed two people but he claimed self-defense, police said.
Many individuals among the two groups were affiliated with gangs, police said.
Police said the prime suspect in the funeral shooting is a man last seen fleeing south on Main Street in a 1970s model Chevrolet El Camino. He has not been identified.
Part of the vehicle was painted purple, and the number 7 was painted on both sides. The car had chrome rims, police said.
Police said the shooter mixed in with others attending the funeral.
"He appeared to initially mingle ... and then fired multiple rounds at a group of mourners," spokesman officer Bill Cassell said Wednesday night.
More than 50 friends and family members gathered at University Medical Center after the shooting Wednesday, and almost all declined comment.
"We don't want no retaliation coming back to us," said a woman who wouldn't give her name. "We're just trying to protect ourselves."
Several friends contacted through social media networks also declined comment.
Police did not officially comment on the funeral shooting Thursday.
The source said Velasquez fled after the incident and had not been located by police as of Thursday afternoon.
The incident was not the first reported shooting in Las Vegas at a funeral.
In 2004, 35-year-old Gwendolyn Jones was shot and killed at her sister's wake in a drive-by shooting hours after the funeral.
Police said that shooting was gang-related and a retaliation for an earlier shooting.
Wednesday's shooting was the latest incident in a string of mayhem in Las Vegas, which saw three slayings and an officer-involved shooting in 11 days.
The violence started with Elena's death on June 25.
On Monday morning, a fight between two groups of men on the walkway between The Cosmopolitan and Planet Hollywood ended with another fatal stabbing.
Javier Medrano-Padilla, 21, died from multiple stab wounds, and Pedro Carlos Robledo, 28, was arrested on murder charges.
On Monday night, Luis Carlos Silva, 54, was shot and killed by Las Vegas police after he is reported to have pointed a gun at officers responding to a domestic disturbance at his home.
Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.
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Green Dragon Regular... Death Therapy is 100% effective. It prevents the perp from ever committing ANY crime EVER again! That my friend is 100% supported and 100% effective.
@Barney and 266.h-
Actually, despite Texas' prolific use of capital punishment, it's use produced no corollary decline in violent crime, including both murder and rape. The death penalty-as-deterrent argument is completely unsupported. That being said, however, Texas did see a significant drop in violent crime rates when its statewide gun control laws were relaxed.
Barney...Your comments were quite odd. You responded to my comments on the death penalty with some statistics on foreclosures and then wrap things up with a salute to Mexico (T. Meaningless statistics as well. So what if your new zip code has only four foreclosures. That could mean numerous things. You could live in development of shoddy homes that even the bank doesn't want to take possession of. And what was the point anyway. Were you actually saying the reason your zip has less foreclosures than the one you left her is because of Texas' death penalty? And I wonder, what makes an execution "necessary."
@bghs1986
I don't want to say too much more on this subject, but when I lived in Vegas, it was a great town. Both my wife and I prospered there and I was able to retire in my early 50's. Now that I live in Texas, it is a wholly different world, notwithstanding our high Mexican population. That said, we don't excuse crime here, but we execute when it is necessary. We moved from Vegas because there were just too many low lifes taking over our nice neighborhood. My zipcode in Vegas (pursuant to Trulia) now lists 321 foreclosures, but my zipcode here in Texas has only 4 foreclosures. Seems like I moved into a better neighborhood of winners, whereas you stayed with the losers. Explain how your zipcode can have such an exponential number of losers, whereas we have virtually none. To each his own I guess. "Viva Mexico" as so many of you guys in Vegas proclaim.
266.h.."it is about the message that you send to the people who are looking to fill his shoes." Now if that were actually the case, then I would tend to agree with supporters of the death penalty. However, since there has not been a single study that shows the death penalty is actually a deterrent, then is has to be about something else. Its about vengeance. But we have a JUSTICE SYSTEM here in America not a VENGEANCE SYSTEM. And considering the recent revelation from Metro, that not even DNA evidence is absolute proof of guilt, the risk that a single innocent person be murdered by the government is too high a price. The Death Penalty is more expensive that other punishments, doesn't actually accomplish the task it is intended to and it has the possibility to have catastrophic failure. If I didn't know better, I would say it was a liberal's idea.
bghs1986 always with the outside slow thought process arn't you. Barney is in the right! It is not about this one piece of crap that is now saving the tax payers money, it is about the message that you send to the people who are looking to fill his shoes. To all of you that commit these heinous crimes, please do them in Texas so we can kill you, not in Nevada so we can hug you and tax the hard working people more. Thank you
Barney EXCEPT for the stupid comment about loving obama, you are totally right and maybe one day we can be the United States of Texas and deal with these scum the way they should be!
Not sure why a whole culture would want to relate themselves to clowns. I must be missing something....
@Barney...thanks for the information. While it was completely irrelevant to the story here, it does beg the question: Now that Humberto Leal is dead are you able to sleep with your windows open and leave your doors unlocked while you are at work. In other words, exactly how has the State's decision to execute this man changed your life. Are you safer now? Were you afraid that he was going to break out of prison and knife you in your sleep? Oh and JoeC...you will be relieved to know that illegal immigration from Mexico, continues its steady decline. You are doing a great job. Thanks.
You can't hold your gun sideways. It looks cool but they weren't made to be handled that way. Those people can never do anything right! You really have to watch them anytime they're doing anything!