Police: Gas money robbery ended in deadly Las Vegas park shooting

Three teenagers searching parks for people to rob in the northeast valley are accused of trying to steal a girl’s handbag for gas money before fatally shooting the boy who was with her, according to a police report released Wednesday.

Jose Juarez, 17, and two other unidentified boys were taken into custody on murder and robbery charges, among others.

Juarez’s arrest report, provided by the Metropolitan Police Department, said he, one of the unnamed suspects, and the victim exchanged about 15 rounds.

The unnamed suspect who was allegedly one of the shooters and the girl were injured in the gunfire.

The suspects fled in a vehicle, but were stopped by police in the parking lot before they could leave the park. That’s when the driver told police that one of the passengers had been shot.

The shooting happened around 1 a.m. Monday in the basketball court area of East Las Vegas Family Park, which is located near East Washington Avenue and North Lamb Boulevard. Arriving officers, first alerted by ShotSpotter, found the victim at the east end of the court, and they also found a handgun next to his body, the report said.

The Clark County coroner’s office has not provided the identity of the victim, but the police report said that his first name was Julio. Metro previously said that all of the people involved in the shooting were in their mid-to-late teens.

Juarez had his first appearance at the Las Vegas Justice Court on Tuesday, when he was ordered held without bail. The two other suspects had hearings in Family Court.

‘Trying to come up on a lick’

Shortly after the ShotSpotter notification, police also received a 911 call from the female victim, who had run into a neighborhood south of the park after the shooting.

When she later spoke with police, the report said, she told them that she had gone to the park with the teen identified as Julio to smoke marijuana. They were sitting on a bench near the basketball court when two boys wearing ski masks approached them, each holding a gun.

Julio told the suspects that they did not have any belongings before the suspects demanded the girl’s purse, according to her interview with the police.

“Julio refused to give it to them,” the report said. “The suspects then told Julio if they didn’t get the bag then they were going to grab (the girl) and take her.”

The girl said she looked away before hearing seven gunshots, according to the report. Police said she realized she had been shot, along with one of the robbers, before the suspects tried to flee in a red Honda Accord.

Police said that the other unnamed suspect was the getaway driver and had stolen the vehicle from his mother earlier that morning.

Asked by the police what led up to the shooting, the alleged getaway driver said that he had been driving around with Juarez and his other friend when he realized they were low on fuel and had no money to purchase more.

According to the interview, Juarez said that he was “trying to come up on a lick,” which is slang for committing a robbery, police said. At some point, one of the passengers suggested going to parks to rob people at gunpoint, the report said.

The report also noted that some of the gunfire hit nearby occupied homes, but nobody inside was injured.

Contact Akiya Dillon at adillon@reviewjournal.com.