Casino player’s card helps lead police to murder suspect

Security cameras from several businesses helped Las Vegas police identify a murder suspect arrested last week after he was seen playing video poker minutes before the shooting.

Deandre Gathrite, 32, was arrested May 6 on a warrant and charged with one count of murder, according to jail and court records.

Officers were called at 2:36 a.m. March 22 to East Sahara Avenue and Van Patten Street after ShotSpotter detected five gunshots nearby, police previously told the Review-Journal. Christopher Brown, 42, of Las Vegas was found lying in the parking lot.

Brown was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center where the Clark County coroner’s office ruled he died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Investigators spoke to witnesses and reviewed security camera footage from several nearby businesses, including a casino and a gas station, according to an arrest report from the Metropolitan Police Department released Thursday. Gas station footage gave police a detailed description of the clothes he wore as he allegedly shot Brown in the parking lot.

The nearby casino confirmed that Gathrite was a regular, police said. Video evidence and his player card showed Gathrite sat at a video poker machine from 1:12 a.m. to 2:29 a.m., when he walked out of the casino in the same clothes he was seen in moments later reportedly shooting Brown.

Gathrite has a criminal history in Las Vegas Justice Court dating to 2006, with a conviction for petit larceny. Prior cases of murder, trespassing, kidnapping and domestic battery were dismissed.

In February 2018, Gathrite was charged in the killing of Kenyon Tyler, 26, who also was shot to death on Van Patten Street. Gathrite and Tyler, members of rival gangs, argued before the shooting, according to Gathrite’s arrest report in the prior case. Narcotics also were found at the scene. Gathrite was described as a four-time convicted felon by authorities at the time.

Court records indicate the murder charge in Tyler’s death eventually was dismissed. Gathrite’s arrest report in that case indicates he told police that Tyler was armed at the time of the shooting. The arrest report from the 2018 homicide also indicates confidential witnesses were used to identify Gathrite.

In District Court, Gathrite was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm into an occupied structure in 2011. He has a pending case scheduled for trial in 2022 on drug trafficking charges, according to court records.

On May 5, Gathrite was charged in an additional case with five counts of discharging a weapon into an occupied area, five counts of discharging a weapon where a person may be endangered and felon in possession of a firearm, according to Justice Court records.

He is being held without bail and scheduled to appear in court again Monday on the murder charge.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.