Police: Teens may be behind street robbery, slaying of man

A group of teens suspected in at least two street robberies might be responsible for the fatal shooting Saturday of a 60-year-old father and husband who was walking home after work, according to Metro Police.

Now police are warning the teens to turn themselves in.

“You can help yourself,” Lt. Dan McGrath said, addressing the teens who might have been involved but didn’t pull the trigger.

They may catch a break if they come forward and cooperate with police, McGrath said, but “if we have to hunt you down and find you, you can be charged with murder.”

The victim, Heriberto Diaz Marcial, got off his job as a casino porter on the Strip and headed home on the bus, McGrath said.

He got off the bus about 12:55 a.m. Saturday at a stop on Lake Mead Boulevard not far from his house and started walking home, McGrath said. Surveillance video from a business along the way showed him walking and nobody behind him, he said.

That was the last known time Diaz Marcial was seen alive.

At 1:13 a.m., police received reports of gunshots in his neighborhood and found a gravely wounded Diaz Marcial under a streetlight a few feet from where detectives believe the shooting took place, McGrath said. He was just five houses from his own front door.

“A good man, a family man was shot and killed right behind me,” McGrath said today at a news conference from the crime scene in the 4600 block of Grande Mirada Way, near Lake Mead and Marion Drive.

A makeshift memorial with eight candles and multicolored flowers sat on the sidewalk where Diaz Marcial was shot.

Police said he was robbed.

He lost his life over a cell phone, the only thing that was taken, McGrath said. There is no evidence he resisted or fought back, he said.

Two similar robberies took place just two days before and within a mile of where Diaz Marcial was shot, leading police to believe the same group — four or five young people between 16 and 18 years old — might be involved, McGrath said.

Detective Jacinto Rivera said Metro has vowed to bring justice to Diaz Marcial and his family in this case.

“Anyone who has any information to put these thugs away, it is important that you come forward and provide that information,” he said.

“Unfortunately, this is becoming a wave across the country of people getting accustomed to this,” Rivera said. “This will not be acceptable in our community.”

Anyone with information can contact Metro’s homicide section at 702-828-3521 or via email at [email protected]. To remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 or online at crimestoppersofnv.com.