Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019 | 7:30 p.m.
It was a crime of opportunity with a tragic end that could have happened to anyone in the community, Officer Eric Leavitt said.
A thief took a pickup truck parked at a family home in North Las Vegas early Saturday.
A man, 44, and his teenage son — Kevin Soriano, 17 — left to find it. They didn't have to drive far before stumbling upon their stolen vehicle in the 2600 block of Ferguson Avenue.
Likely unaware that the thief was armed, young Kevin approached him and was hit by gunfire, police said. While tending to his son and his gunshot wound to the chest, the father also got shot, according to police and the Clark County Coroner’s Office.
Detectives were working “around the clock” to solve the case but hadn’t made any arrests as of Tuesday evening, Leavitt said.
It’s a case that’s shaken investigators in how random it was and that the victims were only trying to recover a truck they used for work, Leavitt said.
Officers responded to the slaying scene, near Civic Center Drive and Las Vegas Boulevard North, about 7 a.m., Leavitt said. The teenage victim died at the scene, while his father was treated and has since been released from University Medical Center.
Later that day, police found the truck, which was abandoned about a mile south of the shooting scene.
A cousin who set up an online fundraiser for Kevin Soriano’s family wrote: “Our family will never be the same,” noting that the family is left grieving but that “God gained another angel.”
She could not be reached for further comment.
