Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Little progress reported in car show shooting

Six months ago three people died in a hail of gunfire at a car rally attended by hundreds of people.

Metro Police are still looking for the gunmen.

"We're making some progress," Metro Homicide Sgt. Rocky Alby said. "We're trying to increase interest in the case."

He said police will soon release video stills from the shooting.

The gunfight erupted Oct. 10 at an evening car rally near Rancho Drive and Bonanza Road after the annual Lowrider magazine Super Show.

As many as 700 people and possibly more were in the lot to unofficially show and compete cars in hydraulic jumping contests.

In the end, at least 85 rounds were fired from five different guns. Glen Charles Taylor, 26, Jorge Rojas, 26, and Michael Ferguson, 26, were dead. At least three others were injured.

Rojas's mother, Cecilia Akbar, said she is tiring of the wait for justice.

"All this time has gone by and basically nothing has been done," Akbar said last week via phone from Phoenix.

She said she is disappointed by the response of authorities to the shooting, which is believed to be gang-related.

"It's a stereotype. They're putting all these kids in the gangs and it's like gangs have no rights, gangs have no life, let's not be concerned," Akbar said. "The message I'm getting here is that they deserve to be dead. I don't see it that way."

Akbar is quick to add that her son Rojas was not a gang member but someone who worked hard to open his own custom shop and loved cars.

"I want to clear my son's name," she said.

She also wants a killer found. She hired an investigator and has visited police.

"I have tried so hard and I won't give up until I see this person behind bars where he should be," Akbar said.

Both Akbar and police said they have contacted "America's Most Wanted" about the case.

Investigations sometimes take years, Alby said, though police are better understanding what happened.

"I think it was just two groups of people that had a mutual dislike of each other. When they spotted each other they started shooting, which prompted other people to shoot," he said.

The scale of the ensuing gunfight and number of people complicates the shooting, Alby said.

"We have several victims and each one was shot by a different caliber gun from a different direction. It's very difficult to put together," he said. "We have some decent leads but it's very difficult when we start showing photo lineups to get anybody to point a finger and testify in court."

He said he thinks the shooting was gang-related but had nothing to do with car clubs except that both clubs and gangs were drawn to the rally.

Several people from Arizona and California who said they attended the rally contacted the Sun after the shooting to say it was caused by local violence and only gave lowriders a bad name.

"We put a lot of time and effort in our cars. Why are we going to go out and play stupid?" lowrider enthusiast Tony Guzman said after the shooting.

Bill "Rusty" Evans is a bounty hunter and bail bondsman Akbar hired to investigate the rally shooting. He said he spent about a week talking to people on the street.

"Everybody kept telling me the same story," Evans said. "Everybody knows what happened."

Evans said the gunfight was between members of rival gangs that met at the rally. He said one member had earlier robbed a rival gang's street craps game.

"It was just a big melee," he said. "When it started, everybody started defending themselves. The poor lowriders got the brunt of it ...

"In my opinion, nobody cares if it's a gang-banger, a Mexican, or a black that gets killed. And that's a shame."

He said a failure to find the gunmen could lead to future shootings.

"Next time where's the shooting going to be?" Evans said. "I mean, (the) law needs to fall on them."

Evans said he knows who started the shooting, that Rojas and another victim were innocent bystanders and that he has told police. He wondered why it has taken six months to release photos.

Alby said that most of what Evans told police they already knew but said investigators are following up one of his leads.

Anyone with information may call Metro Homicide at 229-3521 or Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.

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