Man dies after shooting near Strip movie theater

Monday, Aug. 28, 2000 | 11:35 a.m.

Metro Police homicide detectives believe an argument and an obscene gesture may have led to the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old man on Las Vegas Boulevard Saturday night.

Police and paramedics arrived at a parking lot near a Denny's restaurant in the 3700 block of Las Vegas Boulevard South at about 11:15 p.m. and found Juan D. Gonzalez shot in the neck.

Detectives learned that the victim and two friends where outside a movie theater on Las Vegas Boulevard when they exchanged words with two men in a Geo Metro. One of the men in the car responded with an obscene gesture, detectives said.

Gonzalez and his friends walked a short distance on Las Vegas Boulevard and found the car in a parking lot where one of the men inside the Geo pulled a handgun and shot the victim.

Gonzalez was taken to University Medical Center where he died from his wound shortly after arriving, detectives said.

Witnesses got the license plate number of the Geo, and police were able to locate it near Rochelle Avenue and Charlotte Drive.

Police arrested Juan David Padilla, 20. He was booked into the Clark County jail on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon.

Gonzalez's death was the 67th homicide in Metro's jurisdiction so far this year compared with 69 at the same time last year.