A bouquet of flowers left to memorialize Kevin Mendiola Jr. is shown near a convenience store in Henderson where he was gunned down in a drive-by attack Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020.
Published Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 | 7 p.m.
Updated Friday, Nov. 27, 2020 | 10:45 p.m.
Kevin Mendiola Jr. is described by his former high school football coach as being a gracious “big boy” with a big heart and distinctive long hair.
A 2016 graduate of Legacy High School, the 22-year-old Mendiola was destined to succeed in life because of his work ethic, jovial personality, and kind spirit, Legacy coach John Isola remembered.
Mendiola’s life was tragically cut short.
Mendiola was the fatal victim of indiscriminate gunfire unleashed by suspects who targeted strangers in drive-by shootings across multiple jurisdictions in neighboring states early Thanksgiving Day morning. The shooting, reported shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday, also left his younger brother and girlfriend with wounds.
Neither Henderson authorities nor the Clark County Coroner’s Office had publicly identified Mendiola, but his name was disclosed by people connected to the Las Vegas-area high school football circles and his loved ones on Facebook.
Two others were hit by gunfire where Mendiola was killed in the 800 block of East Lake Mead Parkway, near Sunset Road. The four surviving victims were expected to be OK, Henderson Police said Thursday.
The suspects, a man and a woman with faces covered with tattoos or paint, were taken into custody in Arizona, police said. Authorities haven’t disclosed their names and have released little information on what transpired and how they were identified.
Parker Pioneer newspaper in Arizona reported that officials were investigating whether the shootings in Southern Nevada were linked to shootings in La Paz County, located about 200 miles south of the slaying scene.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety, which arrested three suspects accused in a string of attacks in multiple locations in the rural county, confirmed the connection in a statement released Friday night titled, “Arizona State Troopers end multiple-state violent crime spree.”
About seven hours after the shootings in Henderson, authorities in Arizona began receiving reports of someone shooting inside a car shooting at other vehicles on U.S. 95., said officials, noting it matched the car in the Henderson attacks.
The spree there lasted about an hour and ended about 10 a.m. local time when authorities took the suspects into custody following a chase and a rollover crash. The highway patrol agency opened fire, striking one of the suspects, when someone inside the car pointed a gun at a sergeant.
Investigators recovered several weapons, officials said.
The trio hospitalized were Shawn McDonnell, 30, with serious but survivable injuries and Christopher McDonell, 28, and Kayleigh Lewis, 25, for minor crash-related injuries.
Lewis had been discharged from the hospital by Friday night. She was booked at the La Paz County jail on unknown charges.
The La Paz County Sheriff’s Office, which couldn’t be reached for comment Friday, said that the arrests followed a “series of shootings” in Parker and Bouse, Ariz.
“We do not believe that there is any further threat or any more suspects in the area,” wrote La Paz County Sheriff Bill Risen in a Facebook post. “Multiple scenes are being investigated at this time, and we will put out a press release when all the information is gathered.”
The Arizona Department of Public Safety and La Paz County Sheriff's Office couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
Hours earlier Thursday, Henderson Police responded to a convenience store near the 800 block of East Lake Mead Parkway, where they found Mendiola and four others shot. About the same time, 911 operators received calls from other Henderson locations where people reported being shot at.
The four other victims were hospitalized with survivable wounds, police said.
Mendiola’s father wrote on Facebook that his sons — avid car fanatics who built their own rides — were out driving when they stopped for a drink at the convenience store.
Then tragedy struck.
“My boys were just cruising around and blasting their favorite music … and enjoying the scenery in their trucks and cars that they (built) and loved so much,” the post read.
“They were about to hit the lake road and loop around back home, and (that’s) when the nightmare started,” the father’s post continued.
Isola was, shocked and saddened when he learned about Mendiola’s death early Thursday morning. “You hope that it isn’t true,” he said.
Just a few days before, Isola went to the Legacy campus to grab something from his office when he decided to stop by the empty weight room on campus. There, he spotted Mendiola’s name on a record board that still acknowledges him as the record holder for his weight class for bench pressing.
"Hey Mendi, Mendi’s got that record,” Isola remembered telling himself.
Mendiola, a 5-foot-11, 270-pound lineman, was a “very strong kid” who missed some games due to injuries, the coach said. But, he added, “We were better when he was in than when he was out.”
Mendiola’s younger brother, who was also wounded in the shooting, was a student in Isola’s weight training class at Legacy. The teacher described him as a good kid, whom he would always talk to about his older brother.
Although Mendiola didn’t pursue football after high school, he kept up with the Legacy program in subsequent years when he would drop by the weight room and football games.
The coach saw the skillful and dedicated lineman — whom he always enjoyed talking to and whom everybody affectionately called “Mendi” and “Chief” due to his long hair — grow from a boy to a respectable young man with a nice pickup truck, a good job lined up in construction and a long, successful life ahead of him.
“Kevin was very respectful and very respected,” Isola said. “He was one of our kids. He was a good kid. We enjoyed having him, we really did.
“It’s a tragedy, it’s just straight tragedy, and it could’ve been anyone,” Isola said about the randomness of the shooting.
Mendiola’s death reminds Isola of another one of his former players who died young in 2015, Joshua Phillips. The U.S. Army soldier perished in a parachute accident during military training. "It always makes you wonder — why, why somebody so young.”
Mendiola “was on a great path, I think, for success and happiness, and it was a cutoff too short,” Isola said. “Too soon.”
