90°F
weather icon Partly Cloudy

Father found dead, son arrested in east Las Vegas shooting

Updated December 16, 2021 - 8:16 am

A man is accused of fatally shooting his father Wednesday after police said the dad traveled to Las Vegas to check on him.

Justin Gaines, 30, was arrested near the Arizona-New Mexico border, the Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement Thursday. He will be extradited to Las Vegas to face a murder charge.

The father flew to Las Vegas Tuesday from California because his son was having “emotional distress,” Metro Lt. Ray Spencer said late Wednesday.

The Clark County coroner’s office identified the California man as 66-year-old Roy Gaines, of Mountain House, a small town east of San Francisco.

Gaines’ mother and her other son called police around 5 p.m. Wednesday to report they found Roy Gaines’ body in his son’s home, on the 5000 block of Sagelyn Street near Tropicana Avenue and Boulder Highway, police said.

The family had stopped hearing from both men around 3 p.m. Tuesday, which Spencer said prompted the mother and other son to fly out.

SWAT officers determined the home was empty, although a car was still in the garage.

Spencer said the family believed Justin Gaines had mental illness, although Spencer was unsure if the man had been diagnosed.

Court records show Justin Gaines was scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 11 after he pleaded guilty to attempted battery resulting in substantial bodily harm in September.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.

THE LATEST
1 killed, 2 injured in northwest Las Vegas shooting

One person was killed and two others injured in a Saturday afternoon shooting in the northwest valley, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Suspect arrested in fatal east Las Vegas shooting

Las Vegas police accused a 21-year-old man in the shooting death of a person during a street marijuana deal late Tuesday, according to jail records.

Las Vegas man shot in apartment, body dumped, police say

A man was fatally shot in an apartment and his body was disposed at a nearby vacant lot of by a man who helped the accused killer, according to police.