Two men arrested in Luxor bombing
Willebaldo Dorantes Antonio was a young man trying to make it in America. Problem was, he was making it with the wrong man’s ex-girlfriend.
Four days after the 24-year-old died in a bomb blast at the Luxor parking garage, Las Vegas police pinned the slaying on two men, including the former boyfriend of Antonio’s girlfriend. Detectives believe Antonio was targeted because of his relationship.
“This was a very cold, calculated, planned attack,” homicide Lt. Lew Roberts said at a news conference Friday announcing the arrests of Omar Rueda-Denvers and Porfirro Duarte Herrera.
Rueda-Denvers, 32, had been fighting with his ex-girlfriend over visiting their child, and he was kicked off Luxor property two months ago because of ongoing harassment, police said. Detectives booked him on charges of murder, attempted murder and possessing an explosive device.
Herrera was booked on a charge of being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm, but police expected to charge him in connection with the bombing late Friday. Police believe Herrera, also known as Pilo, accompanied Rueda-Denvers to plant the bomb.
Rueda-Denvers, a native of Panama, and Herrera, a Nicaraguan construction worker, are both illegal immigrants, police said.
Antonio’s girlfriend, whose name was withheld by police, worked with him at Nathan’s Famous hot dog restaurant in the Luxor food court. She is in the country illegally and has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, pending deportation to Guatemala.
Antonio, who entered the United States from Mexico illegally about three years ago, worked at Nathan’s at Luxor and the Quizno’s sandwich shop at Excalibur to send money home to support another girlfriend and their child, relatives said.
Antonio and his co-worker walked to the parking garage about 4 a.m. Monday after finishing their shifts at Nathan’s when Antonio noticed an object on the roof of his 1996 Dodge Stratus. When he picked it up, it exploded.
He died shortly after arriving at University Medical Center. The woman was standing about 4 feet away but was unhurt in the blast. Investigators don’t believe she knew about the attack.
Homicide detectives cracked the case Thursday after identifying a mystery car, caught on security cameras parking briefly next to Antonio’s car 90 minutes before the explosion.
Officers pulled over the 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt about 4 p.m. near Eastern Avenue and Russell Road. One of Rueda-Denvers’ former girlfriends was driving and told police he might have taken the car late Sunday without her permission, police said.
About three hours later, police stopped Rueda-Denvers as he drove his green Mazda pickup truck along Pebble Road near Bermuda Road. Detectives questioned him and later found evidence, including bomb-making materials, during a search of his home, police said.
Police and agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also searched a maintenance shed at the Sedona on the Boulevard condominium complex at Pebble Road and Las Vegas Boulevard.
Rueda-Denvers worked at the complex, Roberts said.
Authorities devoted hundreds of investigators to the case, which is far from closed, Roberts said.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” he said. “Once an arrest is made, that’s really when the case begins.”
News of the arrests was welcomed by Antonio’s family, said Miguel Dorantes, his brother. He praised police for their quick action and said he hopes justice will be served.
“I just want it to be over,” he said in Spanish.
He said he knew little about Antonio’s love life or the woman he was with the day he died.
“Who knows?” he said. “I’ve only been here with him (in Las Vegas) about six months.”
He said his family is devastated and hopes to hold funeral services for him in Mexico sometime next week.
Review-Journal reporter Lynnette Curtis and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
