Fatal self-defense shooting actually attempted robbery, report says

Alexis Nava told police that he shot and killed 61-year-old Terry Louie in December in self-defense, but “confidential sources” told detectives the shooting was actually an attempted robbery, according to an arrest report.

Nava, 22, was arrested in connection with Louie’s death on Dec. 20, two days after police found Louie dead in a vehicle in the east Las Vegas Valley. The Metropolitan Police Department has said that a notification from ShotSpotter, a network of audio sensors meant to detect gunshots, led officers to the 2000 block of Wengert Avenue on Dec. 18, after no one had called 911 to report gunfire in the area.

When officers arrived on Wengert, they followed a “trail of fluid” about 200 yards north to Louie’s vehicle, which had crashed into a parked car on Crestwood Avenue, near Charleston Boulevard and Eastern Avenue.

He was dead in the driver’s seat, police said. Louie’s death was ruled a homicide from a gunshot wound to the right thigh, the Clark County coroner’s office has said.

Through information found on Nava’s phone and details from “confidential sources,” detectives determined the 22-year-old met up with Louie that night to get $400 that Louie owed Nava, according to Nava’s arrest report.

“Further sources” who were not identified in the report also told detectives that Nava shot Louie in an “attempt to rob him,” the report said.

When officers found Louie’s car, a 2016 Nissan Juke, it was “riddled with bullet strikes,” the report said. Surveillance footage showed the Nissan arriving in the area, and a man running away from the car “as LVMPD Dispatch received the ShotSpotter notification.”

The man was also seen in the footage returning to the Nissan after it crashed and then running away.

After his arrest, Nava admitted that he got into the passenger side of Louie’s vehicle that night. Nava claimed that the two got in an argument, and Louie put “his hand in his pocket,” the report said.

Nava told detectives he then shot Louie in self-defense.

He remained in the Clark County Detention Center on Saturday without bail, jail records show. Nava has been charged with murder with the use of a deadly weapon.

A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 23, court records show.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.