Prosecutors to seek death for suspect in fatal Las Vegas Strip shooting
Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for the man accused of shooting to death two people on the Las Vegas Strip.
“In addition to killing two people, basically point-blank, he put a number of other people at risk for either serious injury or death,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said.
Manuel Ruiz, 41, was indicted last month on two counts of murder with use of a deadly weapon.
Authorities have said he killed Rodney and Tanisha Finley over a social media feud. The livestreamed shooting occurred June 8 in front of the Fountains of Bellagio.
“The Defendant proceeded to shoot at the victims 7 times, all while there were dozens of people standing and walking in the immediate area of the shooting,” prosecutors said in their Wednesday filing.
Ruiz and Rodney Finley were both YouTubers.
The death penalty decision is not a surprise; Wolfson previously said it was an option.
“This is a case involving the death of two innocent people, and whenever we have a situation where two people are dead, needlessly, senselessly, it’s always an option and that will be something we’ll look at in the coming weeks,” Wolfson said in June.
Ruiz’s public defender, Violet Radosta, did not respond to requests for comment.
Besides Ruiz, Wolfson said he believes his office has decided to pursue death for only two people this year.
The district attorney’s office has averaged about 10 filings to seek the death penalty each year since he was elected, he said, making the current total this year “below average.”
Ruiz has said he acted in self-defense, although no guns were found at the scene and he fled after the shooting, according to police.
The shooting was not the first altercation between Ruiz and Rodney Finley, records have indicated.
Finley had accused Ruiz of pushing him in an incident on Fremont Street in April. The shooting occurred days before Ruiz was due to appear in court on a battery citation for the encounter.
Archie Coronado, identified by police as a witness who had been watching Finley’s livestream, said the feud between the YouTubers started with an altercation in 2023.
Finley decided to start his own YouTube channel and would criticize Ruiz and Ruiz’s wife, Coronado said. Ruiz, he said, did not react well.
“He just couldn’t take the negativity, and I guess he was just getting angrier and angrier,” Coronado said.
“It’s heartbreaking,” he said after learning of the death penalty decision. “That’s pretty crazy.”
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.