2nd man arrested in 2017 Las Vegas homicide
Las Vegas police have arrested a second suspect in the deadly shooting of Adan Gavilanes in May of last year, county booking logs show.
Henry A. Rios, 26, was booked Thursday into the Clark County Detention Center on one count of murder with a deadly weapon.
His arrest comes nearly four months after Metropolitan Police Department homicide detectives arrested 24-year-old Estevan Lemus in connection with the May 23 shooting on the 1900 block of Euclid Avenue. Police believe Lemus was the killer and that Rios drove the vehicle Lemus fled in, according to police records.
Police said Rios’ 2015 silver Nissan sedan matched the description of a vehicle seen leaving the area shortly after gunshots rang out on May 23. Investigators also placed Rios near the scene of the shooting based on cell phone records.
According to both men’s arrest reports, detectives believe a rivalry between two tagging crews led to the killing near downtown Las Vegas.
Gavilanes, 23, was found dead on a sidewalk near St. Louis and Eastern avenues, police said. It’s unclear how many times he was shot, but police said at least nine shell casings were found at the scene.
Police determined in their investigation that Gavilanes was part of a crew called PBSK that painted gang-related graffiti to mark their turf, while Lemus is a member of FPK, a rival crew. In the road near where Gavilanes’ body was found, according to Lemus’ arrest report, a tag reading “PBSK” had been spray-painted over with “FP.”
In a warranted search of Gavilanes’ Facebook account, the arrest report detailed, detectives found that Lemus had messaged another member of FPK in the days leading up to the killing. In the conversation, Lemus said he wanted to locate members of PBSK and make them “eat his bullets.”
District court records show Lemus’ jury trial is set for Nov. 5, while Rios is due in court Monday morning for his 72-hour hearing.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.
