‘You could hear my mom scream’: 911 audio includes son of Strip shooting victims
Family members of an Arizona couple fatally shot while livestreaming from the Strip on Sunday were among the several witnesses who told police they watched the slaying unfold in real time, according to 911 audio released Thursday.
The Metropolitan Police Department provided more than 80 minutes of calls between dispatchers and passersby and livestream viewers who reported seeing a man, later identified as Manuel Ruiz, allegedly pull out a handgun and open fire on 44-year-old Rodney Finley and 43-year-old Tanisha Finley outside the Bellagio at about 10:40 p.m. Ruiz allegedly fled the scene and turned himself in to law enforcement on Monday.
In one of the calls received about an hour after the shooting, an emotional male, whose name was redacted but identified his parents as the victims, told a dispatcher he was a son of the Finleys, and appeared to fight back tears while describing seeing the shooting on his father’s YouTube page.
“I was watching my dad on video, on live, he’s in Vegas right now and the video cut out,” the caller said. “But I heard gunshots around him. I think he might have got shot, so I was just trying to check and make sure, just try to see if he’s OK or where he’s at.”
He continued: “You could hear the audio. You could hear my mom scream. And then you could hear a gunshot.”
‘All of a sudden we heard gunshots’
According to police, Ruiz told investigators that he and Rodney Finley were rival content creators on YouTube and had an ongoing dispute that dated back to 2023. Ruiz appeared Thursday morning in Las Vegas Justice Court, where he faces counts of open murder.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told reporters Thursday prosecutors may seek the death penalty against Ruiz, who has claimed he was acting in self-defense, even though no guns were found at the scene and he fled after the shooting, according to police.
But an arrest report released Tuesday, along with the audio publicized by police Thursday, illustrates a contrast from Ruiz’s account, as well as the chaotic moments that unfolded following the deadly shooting. Names of people who called police were redacted.
One caller informed dispatchers they heard several gunshots in the vicinity and reported they saw one of the victims receiving emergency aid.
“I think someone is dead because they’re doing CPR,” a woman told the operator.
Dispatchers began receiving calls at 10:41 p.m., according to the call audio, with people reporting gunshots just outside the Bellagio fountains.
Another woman called 911 just before 11 p.m. to state she and her 15-year-old daughter were watching the fountain show at the Bellagio when shots rang out.
“All of a sudden we heard the gunshots and just dropped to the ground,” the woman said. “But my daughter witnessed what happened, and then we looked over and there were two people that were shot.”
‘We watch these two guys live all the time’
One woman called 911 about 10 minutes after police said Ruiz fired shots, and told a dispatcher she saw a man who she said was Ruiz, known online as Sin City Manny, fire at the Finleys, who were streaming live from the Strip to their YouTube channel Finny Da Legend. She was one of several witnesses who said they saw the shooting unfold live on the internet.
“This might be stupid, but I’m on YouTube Live and I just saw somebody get shot,” the woman said. “We saw the whole thing. I recorded it. And I want to make the report that we see that person actually take out a gun and shoot somebody. We don’t know if the other person is dead.”
The woman also told the dispatcher additional details about the purported feud between Ruiz and Finley, and described to the dispatcher Ruiz wearing similar clothing and pulling out a gun that officers described Ruiz having in his arrest report.
“We watch these two guys live all the time, and they happen to always have issues with each other,” the woman continued. “I just seen him [Ruiz] pull out a gun and start shooting.”
But the Finleys’ son isn’t the only relative who called police seeking more information. Dispatchers also received a call from a woman who said she was Tanisha Finley’s mother. She reported receiving a call from Rodney Finley’s mother that he may have been shot, and that Tanisha Finley couldn’t be reached.
“Her [Tanisha’s] phone is just going to voicemail and she is not answering,” the woman said.
A funeral service is scheduled for Jun. 21, according to a GoFundMe fundraiser seeking to gather donations to cover the Finleys’ funeral costs. More than $16,000 of the fundraiser’s stated goal of $35,000 had been raised as of Thursday.
Attempts to reach relatives through the fundraising site and other methods have been unsuccessful.
Contact Casey Harrison at charrison@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Casey_Harrison1 on X or @casey-harrison.bsky.social on Bluesky.