Police: 2 arrested in Sunday slaying were members of Loco Boys gang

By Jackie Valley

Published Thursday, July 14, 2011 | 3:39 p.m.

Updated Thursday, July 14, 2011 | 6:08 p.m.

Metro Police said they arrested two members of the Loco Boys gang in connection with the murder of a 21-year-old man Sunday evening outside an an apartment complex in the western Las Vegas Valley.

Police arrested Steven Arroyo, 19, and Dominic Commisso, 18, according to arrest reports released Thursday. They were booked into the Clark County Detention Center on Wednesday in connection with murder with a deadly weapon and four counts of attempted murder.

Officers responded about 8:30 p.m. Sunday to the shooting at the Avery Park apartments in the 2200 block of North Torrey Pines Drive near Smoke Ranch Road. Police said the victim, Charles Lamont Taylor Jr., and several other people were sitting on a wall when the suspects approached them and claimed to be members of a rival gang.

A fight broke out, and one of the men allegedly fired numerous shots at the group, striking Taylor, who died at University Medical Center, police said. The suspects then ran from the scene.

According to the arrest reports, a witness said the man who fired the gun went by the name “Scandals.” The other man was described as wearing a black baseball cap with the letters “LB” on the front.

That information led detectives to obtain photos of Locos Boys gang members, according to the arrest reports. They determined the suspect known as “Scandals” was Commisso, who witnesses then identified in a photo line-up as the alleged shooter.

The witnesses also told detectives the two suspects were carrying plastic bags from Taco Bell, according to the arrest reports. Surveillance tapes from a nearby Taco Bell allegedly showed the men in the restaurant before the shooting.

When detectives identified Arroyo as the second suspect, they contacted him and he allegedly admitted to being in the Taco Bell and then walking past the apartment complex on Torrey Pines Drive, police noted in the reports. Police say he told detectives he was going to fight one of the men in the other group when he heard gunshots.

Both men are being held in the detention center without bail, according to jail records. Their first court appearance is scheduled for Friday.