Man arrested in connection with fatal shooting, car crash in Henderson
Henderson police arrested a man Tuesday in connection with a fatal shooting inside a car that crashed into a Henderson home earlier this month.
Brian Kenneth Kleynen, 36, is being held without bail at the Henderson Detention Center, where he faces charges of first-degree kidnapping, attempted robbery with a deadly weapon, and multiple conspiracy charges.
The shooting left two men dead and happened about 12:20 a.m. April 12 on the 100 block of Trenier Drive, near Mission Drive and Horizon Ridge Parkway. Police said the incident started as a kidnapping.
The eventual shooter was kidnapped, police said, and he will not be charged because detectives said he acted in self-defense. Kleynen came into play because police said he knew the shooter, and on the night of April 11, Kleynen texted and called him many times, telling him it was “in dire importance” that they meet.
But Kleynen wasn’t alone when he later pulled up to the shooter’s home in a dark-colored Nissan Altima; he was with the two men later shot dead, identified as Lanard Wilson, 34, and Selvy Auston, 25.
At first, the shooter hesitated to enter the car, but police said “he complied and entered the vehicle” because he knew Kleynen.
Inside the car, the shooter was zip-tied and asked about accessing a jewelry store he worked at. When the man said he could not access the store because he did not have his keys, the group headed toward the man’s house. That’s when the man slipped loose from his zip ties and grabbed his concealed firearm. He fired it several times inside the car, killing Wilson and Auston.
Without anyone driving, the car careened off the road, hitting a single-family home and catching fire, causing minor damage. The homeowners were not injured.
Kleynen later “admitted to having planned and staged his own kidnapping with Auston for the purpose of deceiving and robbing the victim,” police said.
The two men killed had criminal histories, and police said at least one of them had a known gang affiliation. They were Henderson’s fourth and fifth homicides this year.
Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Rachel Crosby contributed to this story. Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Find @WesJuhl on Twitter.
