Police: Robbery witnesses targeted in deadly Las Vegas shooting

Three men have been charged with murder in an ambush-style shooting that police say targeted witnesses to an armed robbery in southwest Las Vegas.

Brandon Jaymes Thomas McCoy, 18, Raymond Duncan, 19, and Tywann Robert Hoyer-Pitts, 18, are each facing 66 felonies and 28 gross misdemeanors in the Oct. 10 shooting of a man identified in a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report as Miguel Chavarria Garcia, 18.

Chavarria Garcia was shot in the head while riding in an Acura at 2:11 a.m. at the intersection of West Rochelle Avenue and South Durango Drive, police said. He died at a hospital days later, police said.

Police said in the arrest report that Chavarria Garcia and his friends went to a Halloween party that morning, then went to an In-N-Out Burger at 6530 S. Rainbow Blvd. when they noticed two armed men robbing a man of his gold chain.

One of the men in Chavarria’s group told police that when the assailants left, the group briefly followed the assailants’ vehicle. As they approached a nearby traffic light, a 2018 Nissan Kicks then pulled up alongside Chavarria Garcia’s group and gunmen opened fire on the Acura.

One of the bullets struck Chavarria Garcia in the face as he sat in the back of the car, police said. Crime scene analysts later recovered 28 cartridge cases at the scene.

Police said they used video surveillance, cellphone data and a witness account to identify suspects. According to the arrest report, Hoyer-Pitts acknowledged being at the In-N-Out and “that he was being followed by an unknown vehicle and that he fired upon that vehicle with a rifle,” police said.

McCoy and Hoyer-Pitts made brief appearances in Las Vegas Justice Court early Thursday. Duncan was scheduled to appear in court for an initial hearing on Thursday afternoon. All three are currently being held without bail.

McCoy’s attorney, Dayvid Figler, declined to immediately comment. An attorney representing Hoyer-Pitts could not immediately be reached for comment. A preliminary hearing for Hoyer-Pitts and McCoy has been scheduled for Nov. 19.

Court records do not list an attorney for Duncan.

Contact Glenn Puit at [email protected].