Las Vegas shooting suspect found through video, phone records

A trail of surveillance footage, cellphone records and police reports led to a man’s arrest in Northern California in connection with a November homicide in Las Vegas.

Evonte Brown, suspected in the fatal shooting of 31-year-old Bill Henderson on Nov. 20 in the western Las Vegas Valley, was arrested Feb. 17 in Concord, about 30 miles from San Francisco, Metropolitan Police Department homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said. Brown’s arrest warrant, released Tuesday, shows the motive behind the shooting may involve a woman who lived with Brown.

Metro detectives flew to California to interview Brown, 28, two days after he was arrested, Spencer has said.

On Nov. 20, police were called to Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center in response to a man suffering from a gunshot wound. Henderson died on Nov. 27 at University Medical Center from complications of a gunshot wound. The Clark County coroner’s office ruled his death a homicide.

Detectives determined the shooting happened in the parking lot of a Home Depot near Decatur Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue, according to the warrant, issued Feb. 7. Surveillance footage from Home Depot and a nearby 7-Eleven captured the shooting.

Before the shooting, Henderson drove a car onto an access road near the two stores, behind a gold sedan, the warrant said. The gold sedan turned around and stopped at about the same time Henderson stopped his car, both near a white BMW SUV idling in the Home Depot parking lot.

“Within a few seconds,” the gold sedan sped away, and someone ran up to Henderson’s vehicle and shot into the car. That person then got into the BMW and followed the sedan out of the parking lot, the warrant said.

A black sedan then pulled up to Henderson’s car, and two men began helping Henderson. One man put Henderson into the black sedan and drove him to the hospital, while the other man followed, driving Henderson’s car.

Police were unable to identify the man who drove Henderson’s car to the hospital, leaving it in the parking lot outside the emergency room, the warrant said. After detectives found the car and surrounded it with police tape, a group of women arrived who knew Henderson had been shot, but were “uncooperative” with officers.

After going in the hospital for a few minutes, “at least one” of the women took something from Henderson’s car, the report said. The women left before they were identified.

Detectives didn’t know what the women took from the car, but officers found four bullets and bullet fragments inside the vehicle, the warrant said. Four bullet cartridge cases were found at the Home Depot parking lot, along with blood.

Surveillance footage from the 7-Eleven showed both Henderson and the man who drove him to the hospital outside the store, as well as the BMW and gold sedan seen in footage.

Two weeks after the shooting, detectives received a tip from a man who said the shooting was about a female sex worker.

Detectives identified the woman through Henderson’s cellphone records, and they discovered that she had reported her “co-habitant” to police for battery in August. Detectives determined the man she reported to police was actually Brown, the warrant said.

Brown had a car registered to him in California that matched the BMW’s description, the warrant said. Phone records also placed Brown in the area of the shooting when it happened.

A booking photo of Brown in Metro arrest records also helped identify him as the the shooting suspect in the surveillance footage, the warrant said.

Police in California found Brown at about 9:50 a.m. Feb. 17 at a motel, a spokeswoman for the Concord department said Wednesday. Officers on “routine patrol” searched the license plates on his car, parked at the motel, and discovered the warrant.

Brown was arrested without incident, Concord police said.

As of Thursday night, Brown had not been extradited to Nevada, court records show. He faces a murder charge.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.