LAS VEGAS: A 22-year-old man dressed in battle gear fired at least 20 shots outside and inside a Las Vegas convenience store, killing a man sitting in a parked car but missing customers in store aisles, a prosecutor said Friday.
The suspect, Jesus Javier Uribe, refused to attend a scheduled court appearance on multiple felony charges including murder and attempted murder following his arrest Thursday at a house in southwest Las Vegas following what police characterized as a random criminal act.
A judge acknowledged Uribe's absence and ordered him held in jail without bail pending arraignment Tuesday in Las Vegas Justice Court on charges also including robbery, burglary and illegal discharge of a weapon.
Prosecutor Richard Scow said later that police found 13 bullet casings outside the store, where Curtis Leon Abraham, 36, was shot several times while sitting in a vehicle waiting for his girlfriend inside. Abraham was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.
Police said Uribe shot into an unoccupied vehicle outside the store before he was seen on security video striding inside wielding a handgun and wearing a tactical vest and a gun belt.
Abraham's girlfriend hid with a store clerk in a refrigerator cooler, Scow said, while other people escaped out the back door.
Seven bullet casings were found inside the store, but no one there was hit by gunfire, the prosecutor said.
Uribe also is accused of robbing a person in a street confrontation before arriving at the store.
Police said a tip led to Uribe came after officials issued a public plea for help, characterizing the shooting as a random act and releasing a photo of the gunman entering the store.
The gunman took items from the store and left the area on foot, police said.