Raul Dorado, 12, places a candle as he visits a makeshift memorial for Kevin Soriano with his mother, Yesenia, and sister Jaquelin on Ferguson Avenue in North Las Vegas Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019.
Friday, Dec. 6, 2019 | 2 a.m.
As Kevin Soriano boarded a city bus in late November, the teenager noticed a fellow passenger struggling to carry a piece of luggage. So, he carried it up the on-ramp for him.
The ride must have only been 15 minutes, Ricardo Luna remembers, but it was long enough for Soriano to leave a lasting impact on the man he helped. They sat next to each other and talked about their mothers.
And before they bade farewell after exiting the bus in the same North Las Vegas neighborhood, Soriano gave the man his phone number, saying “just to check up on you, bro,” Luna recalled the teen telling him.
The next time Luna heard of the good Samaritan he met a few days earlier, it was because the teen was the subject of a news story: A 17-year-old was killed by the alleged thief of his family’s pickup truck.
“Wow, it’s a small world,” said Luna Thursday afternoon from Boris Terrace Park, where Soriano’s family and friends were hosting a “Kermes” in his honor.
Typically, a Kermes — as it’s known in the Hispanic community — is a festive church carnival of sorts where food is sold and games are played, and funds are raised. The menu Thursday included traditional items: tamales, pozole, mole, tacos and champurrado, the warm flour-based chocolate drink. The money, however, wasn’t being raised for a church function, but for funeral expenses.
And there were no carnival games.
Still, people like Luna, who was accompanied by his mother and sister, Soriano’s young friends and community members showed up in droves. Luna said he hoped to speak to the Soriano family to express his condolences and let them know their loved one was a marvelous person he felt blessed to have met, if even briefly.
As of Thursday, North Las Vegas Police had not announced any arrests in Soriano’s slaying, which occurred about 7 a.m. Saturday. Noticing that their pickup truck was stolen from their home, near the park, Soriano and his father drove around looking for it, according to police.
Soon they stumbled upon the truck in the 2600 block of Ferguson Avenue, police said. The teenager got out and was shot in the chest as he approached the occupied stolen vehicle. When his father, 44, approached the gunman, he was also shot.
The elder victim is expected to recover, police said.
Esmirna Perez-Puch described Soriano as a calm teenager who was never known to cause trouble. She said the victims were great neighbors she’s interacted with for many years, who were always willing to help those in the tight-knit community.
Perhaps that’s why it wasn’t hard to see how such an elaborate fundraiser came together in such short notice.
At the slaying scene, Yesenia Dorado and her daughter and son, ages 17 and 12, surrounded Kevin Soriano’s growing memorial, lighting the dozens of religious candles in the makeshift memorial.
Dorado said Soriano’s death had especially hit her because of his young age. He was friends with a family member of hers, she added. “We know where we are born, but we don’t know where we will end up,” she said in Spanish.
Soon, three of the victim’s neighborhood friends joined in, telling the woman about last summer break when Soriano would hang out with them daily.
“We’re more than friends — he’s like our brother,” one of the teens said.
