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March 28, 2024

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Long-simmering argument preceded shooting at Strip parking garage, police report indicates

Ariya Manoi

Ariya Manoi

Devante Jeffers

Devante Jeffers

A simmering disagreement between two teenagers over a lost job escalated into last week’s brazen shooting at a Las Vegas Strip parking garage that left three people injured, two of them critically, according to a Metro Police arrest report.

Devante Jeffers, 18, is charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder with a deadly weapon and battery with use of a deadly weapon.

A second suspect, whom police on Monday identified as 21-year-old Ariya Manoi, remains at-large.

Jeffers was arrested about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday on the sixth floor of the Showcase Mall parking garage, 3785 Las Vegas Blvd. South, where the shooting had occurred shortly after midnight Wednesday.

Here is the sequence of events, as laid out in the police report into Jeffers’ arrest:

A group of three people – two teenage boys and a girl – were walking on Rue de Monte Carlo near Las Vegas Boulevard after having been ejected from the Hard Rock Café, 3771 Las Vegas Blvd. South. There, they got into an argument with Jeffers, who was driving a white Lexus, and another man, identified at the time only as “Lee,” who was driving a black Lexus.

The argument was over Jeffers being responsible for one of the teens, a former classmate at Sierra Vista High School, losing his job at a pizzeria.

Shortly after, the three pedestrians engaged a 19-year-old female and talked her into driving them back to the Hard Rock Café. The 19-year-old drove them to the sixth floor of the Showcase Mall parking garage, where both the white Lexus driven by Jeffers and the black Lexus driven by “Lee” were parked. The 19-year-old parked her car, and she and her seven passengers headed to the elevator.

As they were exiting the elevator in the lobby, bullets began flying. Three of the people were shot – an 18-year-old male, a 19-year-old male and a 19-year-old female. “Lee” fired at least nine rounds, striking the 18-year-old male in the torso, both biceps and left thigh. The 19-year-old male was shot in the neck; the 19-year-old female was struck in her left calf. Jeffers was heard saying, “You knew this was going to happen.”

The two 19-year-old victims fell in the lobby, where “Lee” approached the female and held a gun to her head while Jeffers told the woman she was about to die. When “Lee” didn’t fire, the woman got up and fled toward Las Vegas Boulevard, where she met up with three of her friends.

As Jeffers followed the woman onto Las Vegas Boulevard, “Lee” told three people still in the elevator, including the wounded 18-year-old, to close the elevator doors. When the three reached the sixth floor, they called 911. As they were on the phone with police dispatchers, they saw “Lee” get off another elevator, get into his Lexus and drive away.

Police arrested Jeffers about 2:30 a.m. as he returned to the parking garage and attempted to get back into his vehicle. In interviews with police, he said he had met “Lee” for the first time that evening and they had decided to go to Hard Rock Café. Jeffers said denied any involvement in the shootings, saying he had been at the Hard Rock since midnight.

The two wounded males were transported to University Medical Center, where they remain in critical condition. The 18-year-old who was shot multiple times suffered a shattered spine and is paralyzed from the chest down. The 19-year-old suffered internal bleeding with a bullet lodged in his shoulder blade.

The 19-year-old woman was treated for her wound.

On Monday, Metro announced warrants had been issued for Manoi. Like “Lee,” Manoi is described as Asian, with black hair, 5-feet-11 and weighs about 195 pounds.

Anyone with information about Manoi's whereabouts or about the shooting is asked to contact Metro at 828-5634 or, to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers, 702-385-5555.

Jeffers, meanwhile, remains in custody in the Clark County Detention Center with bond set at $140,000. He is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 20.

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