Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Surveillance video leads to arrests in slaying outside unlicensed nightclub

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James Ketchum

The sun had just risen as surveillance images captured an apparent shooting victim and suspect palling around outside an illegal nightclub just before a bullet tore into the victim's stomach, killing him, according to Metro Police.

Authorities have made at least three arrests in the Sept. 25 shooting of Ezekiel F. Davis, 27, outside Top Knotch Apparel in the valley's spring valley area, records show. The clothing store's backroom served as a secret nightclub, police said.

The accused gunman, Javar Eris Ketchum, 31, was arrested Saturday and booked on one count each of murder and robbery. He's at the Clark County Detention Center, and bail has not been set. Also facing charges are Marlo Chiles, Roderick Vincent, 34, and Antoine Bernard.

Officers were called about 6:20 a.m. to the store's parking lot in the 4200 block of Decatur Boulevard, near Spring Mountain Road, police said. The caller reported a man who had been shot and that he was not wearing pants or shoes, according to a Metro arrest warrant report.

First responders found Davis lying in the parking lot. Also in the lot were his pants, shoes, hat, cellphone, two rings and a metal chain with a medallion, the report said. Davis died at University Medical Center.

Much of the incident was captured on the store's surveillance system, which Vincent had taken from the building and concealed in his vehicle parked outside, the report said.

He told police he "wasn't sure why," but was protecting the recordings, the report said. Detectives only found them after obtaining warrants to search all vehicles in the lot.

About three hours prior to the shooting, Ketchum was seen taking a gun out of his pocket and showing it to Vincent, Chiles and Bernard outside the store, the report said.

About a minute before the shooting, Ketchum and Davis are seen walking out of the store, the report said. Several other people, including Bernard and a woman, followed them but then ran away, apparently when the 9-mm gun was fired.

The cameras did not catch the shooting but did capture the aftermath, the report said. Ketchum comes back into frame to yank the belt from Davis' pants and walks to a black BMW coupe waiting for him. He has a gun in his right hand.

Ketchum walks back toward where Davis is lying before ultimately fleeing in the car, the report said. Bernard was driving, and a woman, the car's registered owner, was with them.

Police said they identified Ketchum through anonymous tips and a Facebook page tied to him, the report said.

Three days after the shooting and in an effort to identify persons of interest, Metro released images of Ketchum, Bernard, the woman and the car.

Detectives later identified the distinctive BMW from an August incident in which Bernard was pulled over and the car was impounded, the report said. The car was registered to the woman they were looking for.

The report doesn't detail where the investigation led detectives past Sept. 30, when the document was filed in court.

On Oct. 3, police arrested Marlo Chiles on one count each of murder and concealing a felon, court records show. He was released Wednesday under intensive supervision.

Roderick Vincent, 34, was arrested a week ago on one count of harboring a felon, court records show. He's being held at the Clark County Detention Center on the homicide and an unrelated domestic battery case.

Antoine Bernard was charged with robbery with a deadly weapon in connection to Davis' death, court records show. Further information on his standing was not clear.

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