Victim in early morning gunfight at Las Vegas apartment complex ID’d

The Clark County coroner’s office has identified the man killed in a central Las Vegas gunfight early Friday.

He was 38-year-old Gregron McCoy and he died of a gunshot wound to the chest, the coroner’s office said. His death was ruled a homicide.

Las Vegas police Lt. Ray Spencer said an argument between groups of people took place at 1:15 a.m. Friday in the parking lot of the Kensington Suites apartments, 2200 W. Bonanza Road.

“There was an altercation inside the apartment complex involving at least four males,” Spencer said. “At some point during that altercation guns are pulled out. There are at least three males, possibly four, exchanging gunfire.”

McCoy was pronounced dead at the scene and two others drove themselves to North Vista Hospital and were taken to University Medical Center, police said. One was in “extremely critical condition” and the other was expected to survive, police said.

Three handguns were recovered from the scene. Spencer said police do not know what the argument was about.

Jovanny Cortez-Torres, 21, was arrested Friday in connection with the case. Police found him holding a gun at a bus stop near the complex after the shooting, according to a recently released arrest report.

Cortez-Torres told police that he’d gotten into an argument with a pair of twin brothers on Thursday, which escalated into a gun fight when he ran into them again in the parking lot early Friday morning, the report said. He told police that he and a friend went to fight the men and brought guns for self-defense.

He initially said they thought the twins had guns and were going to shoot so his friend opened fire and he started shooting shortly after out of self-defense. But later in the interview with police, Cortez-Torres told officers that “he shot right after (his friend) shot, because he was scared and feared the other men had guns,” the report said.

Cortez-Torres is being held at the Clark County Detention Center on charges of attempted murder with a deadly weapon and battery with a deadly weapon. He is expected in court Tuesday.

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.