Family frustrated over no arrests following July homicide in Las Vegas

Wilford Venable Jr. and Brittany Gonzales were going to make it right this time.

After eight years, three children and a six-month breakup, Gonzales said they were trying to get back together. Then, she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, she and her 1-year-old son watched the man she had dated briefly during their breakup shoot Venable Jr. to death.

The July 8 shooting came after a physical fight, Gonzales said, and Metropolitan Police Department officials said they were investigating the killing as potential self-defense, and no arrests have been made since.

The Review-Journal is not naming the suspect because he has not been arrested. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

Gonzales and Venable Jr.’s family remain frustrated and scared as they question why the gunman remains free.

“I don’t understand why nobody’s in jail right now,” said Venable Jr.’s sister, Sharonda Venable.

She and Gonzales also disputed some details initially reported by police.

In a press briefing after the shooting, Lt. Jason Johansson referred to the suspect as Gonzales’ current boyfriend. But she told the Review-Journal that she had broken up with him three weeks earlier. Johansson also stated that the home in which the shooting occurred was where Gonzales and the suspect lived, but she said he did not live there.

Gonzales said she had not been in contact with her ex-boyfriend in the three weeks since they had broken up. But she was pregnant with his son, and he reached out to check in with her. He picked her up from work on July 7, and she said that once they were together, she could not get rid of him. Even when she eventually returned to her own home, she said, he came with her.

Walk leads to altercation

When Venable Jr. got to the house, as Gonzales noted was typical for the two who were co-parenting and working on their relationship, he and her ex-boyfriend went out for a walk. Gonzales said that while she does not know the details, she does know Venable Jr. was angry because Gonzales had recently told him that her ex-boyfriend had hit their son.

“I’m only a female; there’s only so much I can do,” Gonzales said. “He should never have hit my son the way he did thinking it was OK.”

Gonzales said that her ex never hit her, but she did recall him pulling her hair and giving her a bald spot. He had been using the drug PCP, and it seemed to her like only a matter of time before things got worse. She said she had not told Venable Jr. about this.

Eventually, the two men started fighting. Gonzales said Venable Jr. ended up messing up the ex-boyfriend very badly.

“At this point, they weren’t even fighting, it was just Wilford punching him up,” she said.

Then, her ex-boyfriend shot Venable Jr. He died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Clark County coroner’s office.

Gonzales said she had no idea her ex-boyfriend had a gun on him. The fact that he did, combined with the way he had initially reached out and lingered for so long, made the whole thing seem pre-meditated to her.

“He used me as bait to get to him,” she claimed. “I can’t stop thinking about that.”

Johansson said in the briefing that the suspect had fled the scene upon officers’ arrival. Gonzales said that officers made contact with him later. Metro declined to confirm whether or not officers have made contact with the suspect, stating that it is an ongoing investigation.

Gonzales said she later found out the suspect was not in custody. Now, she said, she is not only angry, but scared for her own life, especially given that she and her son are the only witnesses.

“I’m scared,” she said. “He could be trying to get rid of me.”

A family man

Venable Jr. had moved to Las Vegas for Gonzales, she said.

Sharonda Venable said she found it hard not to harbor some resentment toward Gonzales, especially given the child’s presence in the room.

“No one cared enough to grab my nephew, while his dad was getting murdered right in front of him,” Venable said.

The child lived with her family in Vancouver, Washington, for a period after his father’s death before returning to Gonzales, and Venable described him constantly screaming and crying, and looking down the hall saying “Da-da.”

Gonzales said that he still kisses photos of his father every night and shakes when he hears something that sounds like gunshots.

“That hurt my heart,” she said. “He knows he’s not here.”

Gonzales and Venable both called Venable Jr. a family man who got along with everyone.

“Everybody gets along with him,” Gonzales said. “It’s very rare when nobody gets along with him. He loves people. He got me to be a people person. I wasn’t a people person at first.”

The two had originally broken up over issues with consistency with jobs and housing, and she thought some “man time” might be good for him. Gonzales said she thought he was doing better.

Venable called him the “best brother ever.”

“Just let him be a father. That’s all he was there for, was just to be a dad,” Venable said.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com.