Murder suspect who broke cuffs to escape linked to string of other violent crimes

By Ricardo Torres-Cortez

Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016 | 8:45 p.m.

In the weeks leading up to a fatal shooting over a trivial argument outside a North Las Vegas McDonald's, the alleged shooter — who later made headlines for shedding his handcuffs, escaping a police station, and alluding authorities for several days — is suspected in a disturbing number of violent acts, court documents show.

Alonso Perez was recaptured Tuesday by a task force that comprises local and federal authorities, four days after he escaped an interview room by breaking his handcuffs, climbing through the North Las Vegas police station's ceiling, coming down a hallway inside the station and bolting through a back door, police said.

The 25-year-old suspect, whose feet were still shackled during the escape, stole an unoccupied work truck that had its keys in the ignition about 100 feet from the police station, city police chief Alexander Perez said Wednesday.

Besides the fatal shooting outside a McDonald's in the 3000 block of Las Vegas Boulevard North late Aug. 27, Perez was also wanted and suspected in an armed robbery outside a northeast valley bank, a non-injury shooting into an east valley motel and a battery incident, according to court documents obtained from the different cases.

In an interview with detectives following his Tuesday rearrest, Perez admitted to pulling the trigger outside McDonald's and smoking methamphetamine that night, police said. He said he fired his gun in self-defense because he thought Mohammed Robinson, 31, was armed and was waving his hands in the air when Perez pointed the gun at him.

Perez said he didn't plan to shoot Robinson, police said.

McDonald's incident

A verbal fight had broken out between Robinson and a woman Perez had accompanied to use the restroom shortly before midnight, police said. Witness accounts were not clear, but they were apparently fighting over one of them not holding the door open for the other, police said. The woman challenged Robinson to meet her outside.

Instead, Robinson went into the restroom, police said. Once Perez heard about the fight, he became upset and waited outside and fired four rounds at Robinson when he exited, striking him multiple times and shattering the restaurant's glass door, police said.

Robinson told an officer that he had argued with a Hispanic man and woman and that he had "talked s---" to the woman before the shooting.

Robinson told a second officer as he lay fatally wounded that he "shouldn't have called her a bitch," police said. Robinson died shortly after at University Medical Center.

When he was questioned about the other incidents, Perez "had a panic attack, started crying, and said he wanted an attorney," according to his arrest report.

Armed robbery

A week before the deadly shooting, Perez is believed to have robbed a woman at gunpoint outside a bank, stealing her car.

Officers were called about 9:45 p.m. on Aug. 21 to a U.S. Bank at 2200 E. Lake Mead Blvd., police said.

A woman said she noticed Perez monitoring her as she used an ATM machine, police said. She rushed to her car where she was met by Perez, who was pointing a gun at her.

The woman ran away and Perez and a woman he was with drove away with her car, police said. Surveillance images show Perez using the victim's debit card.

Motel shooting and domestic violence incident

On July 25, a month prior to the fatal shooting, Perez is believed to have fired five rounds into an east valley motel office when the front-desk clerk refused to let him and his girlfriend into the lobby when the clerk noticed they were arguing, according to court documents.

Officers were called about 1:15 p.m. to the Peterson Motel at 2112 N. Nellis Blvd., police said.

A month before the motel incident, Metro Police were called to an east valley apartment complex in the 1600 block of Pecos Road, where Perez allegedly grabbed his girlfriend, the same woman from the hotel incident, by the hair and slammed her head into a wall.

Case statuses

Police arrested Perez after a woman came forward claiming she had information on the fatal shooting, according to the arrest report. She identified the woman who had argued with Robinson.

Perez was initially arrested Sept. 2, the same day he escaped custody.

Before the McDonald's shooting, there were warrants out for Perez's arrest in relation to the motel and battery incidents, court records show.

Perez appeared before Las Vegas and North Las Vegas judges on Thursday and combined bail for the multiple incidents was set at $1.7 million, according to the Associated Press.