Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

No motive yet for two-state rampage that left man dead in Henderson

Mendiola

Ricardo Torres-Cortez

A makeshift memorial is shown near a convenience store in Henderson where a gunman opened fire Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020.

Click to enlarge photo

Christopher McDonnell

Kayleigh Lewis

Kayleigh Lewis

Kevin Mendiola and his girlfriend were cruising around Henderson in his custom-made truck, listening to music and enjoying life when they decided to stop at a convenience store for a drink early Thanksgiving morning.

At the 7-Eleven there was a black Toyota Camry in the parking lot. And outside the car was a couple they couldn’t miss, as the man had bewildering face tattoos and the woman “discoloration” under her left eye.

Mendiola’s group, including his brother in another car, and anyone else at the 7-Eleven on Lake Mead Parkway, could have never imagined that a series of random shootings had commenced 20 minutes earlier.

They would be next.

Motorists at three previous drive-by scenes were fortunate to escape without injury. The same wasn’t the case for victims at 7-Eleven.

Kevin Mendiola and his girlfriend were shot inside his pickup truck, and his brother was shot while in his car. A man who was at the store with his daughter and grandchild was shot while standing in the doorway of the store.

Mendiola, 22, died at the scene, while the other four victims — including a woman shot in her arm near Lake Las Vegas afterward — are expected to recover from their gunshot wounds.

Three suspects went on to shoot at an unknown number of random motorists on a rural highway in Arizona, about 200 miles away from Las Vegas, before they were arrested following a car chase with authorities.

A motive for the shooting isn’t known, nor is how the victims and locations were selected.

The woman who saw her father get shot in the convenience store doorway told detectives that the shooter had knocked on her car window with his gun and told her: “You’re not going to die.”

The violent, random crime spree was outlined in a Henderson Police arrest report of one of the suspects, Christopher McDonnell, who appeared in local court Tuesday morning.

Reports indicate the suspects are residents of Tyler, Texas. The Tyler Morning Telegraph reported that they have no known criminal record with the exception a Nov. 13 speeding ticket for one of the suspects.

• • •

Probing five separate random shootings in Henderson, police alerted authorities in neighboring California and Arizona to be on the lookout for a black Toyota driven by the suspects.

Christopher McDonnell, 28, Kayleigh Lewis, 25, and Shawn McDonnell 32, were taken into custody following a chase with the Arizona Department of Public Safety in La Paz County. Troopers shot the older McDonnell.

Henderson Police last week said a man and a woman suspected in the shootings here, who were identified through surveillance images at the convenience store, were in custody. It wasn’t clear if Shawn McDonnell was with them or if he will face charges in Henderson.

Christopher McDonnell is being held on counts of murder, attempted murder and discharging a weapon into a structure, Henderson Justice Court records show.

He is being represented by a public defender. Lewis is jailed in La Paz County on a $500,000 bond, Sheriff William Risen said Tuesday.

Risen didn’t know specific details about the case of Shawn McDonnell, who was hospitalized after being shot with troopers, but noted “he is not free.”

Risen said that his department will file criminal charges for the trio but that the situation remained fluid. “I am sure there will be extraditions from both Nevada and Arizona eventually,” he said.

A search for Shawn McDonnell and Lewis in the Henderson Justice Court docket returned empty, suggesting that charges for them hadn’t been filed here as of Tuesday.

• • •

At 12:37 a.m. Thanksgiving Day, two people were driving on the 215 Beltway near the Valle Verde Drive off ramp when a black car pulled alongside and someone opened fire, police said. The man and women were uninjured.

Three minutes later, a man was on Auto Show Drive trying to get on U.S. 95 when his car was hit by gunfire, police said. He wasn’t injured.

Moments later, a man was on Warm Springs Road, near Cadence View Way, when a dark-colored car drove next to him, and someone opened fire.

The car, he said, headed east on Lake Mead Parkway, eventually driving up to the convenience store.

Christopher McDonnell and Lewis were seen standing outside their car before they entered the store and then exited, police said.

That’s when, police allege, McDonnell pulled out a gun from his pocket and began shooting.

The grandfather was struck first, near the doorway, said police, noting that McDonnell went on to talk to the victim’s daughter, who was waiting in their vehicle with her young child.

A witness then reported seeing the gunman, believed to be Christopher McDonnell, approach Mendiola’s truck and shoot inside it. He noted also seeing a second man jump out of the Camry and also shoot inside the truck.

When the dust settled, Kevin Mendiola, a Legacy High School graduate and former football player, was dead.

After getting their drinks, the group was going to head home, Mendiola’s father, Kevin Sr., wrote on Facebook.

“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.