Father of 13-year-old killed in smoke shop shooting says son was shot in back

The 13-year-old boy who was killed Friday at a west valley smoke shop was shot multiple times in the back and at least once in the head, the boy’s father said Wednesday.

That information could help explain why investigators decided Monday to pursue a murder charge against the smoke shop clerk accused of firing the fatal shots.

Police initially said the boy, Fabriccio Patti, was struck in the head, but did not say whether the boy had been shot in the back because it was too early to determine at the scene if the boy’s other gunshot wounds were entry or exit wounds.

The shooting happened about 5:20 p.m Friday after Patti, an eighth-grader at Lawrence Junior High School, and two friends from school, ages 14 and 15, ran into Lucky Cigars and Smokes, 8665 W. Flamingo Road, with their faces covered.

Detectives had initially said the boys were wearing physical masks during the incident, but both police and the Clark County district attorney’s office clarified that language Wednesday, saying the boys were instead wearing clothing — like T-shirts, scarves and cinched hoodies — on their faces to “conceal their identity.”

The Metropolitan Police Department also said Friday the shooting appeared to be defensive, but the department reversed course Monday after unlocking and reviewing surveillance footage from inside the store.

According to the footage, the department said the teens were not as close to the clerk, Raad Sunna, as he had initially told police, and it looked as if the teens were going to grab the merchandise and run out. That led detectives to believe Sunna was not in imminent danger when he fired eight or nine shots at the teens.

An arrest report with more details on the incident was not available Wednesday.

Sunna, who had no criminal record, was initially booked Monday at the Clark County Detention Center on the murder charge and held without bail, but his bail was adjusted Wednesday to $150,000. A bail bond was later approved, and court records show Sunna, 24, is now on house arrest and must wear a location-monitoring device.

Sunna, 24, is scheduled to appear in court for a felony arraignment Thursday morning.

During a candlelight vigil Tuesday at Desert Breeze Park, the boy’s father, Martin Patti, said he forgave the clerk.

“To hate this guy is not helping me,” Patti, 42, added Wednesday. “It’s obviously not going to give me back my son.”

The night of the shooting, Patti’s son told his parents he was going to skate at Desert Breeze.

“My wife, she was expecting him to come home around 7:30 p.m., and then he never showed up,” Patti said. “So my wife, she started worrying about it. She started driving around. She went to the park. She couldn’t find him.”

On her way home, Patti said “she saw all the police on the corner of Flamingo and Durango, and she got a bad feeling about it.”

“As soon as she came home, she saw on the news a kid was shot,” he said. “Shortly after that, a police officer came over.”

Since his son’s death, Patti said he’s felt pressured to describe his son as perfect.

“Everyone thinks that I’m going to say he was a good kid, he was an angel, he was an excellent son,” he said. “I’m going to say that he was just a kid. A normal kid. He wasn’t excellent. He made bad decision. He did something stupid.”

“But he was also kind, and very generous, and loved his (7-year-old) sister like there was no tomorrow,” Patti said.

Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @rachelacrosby on Twitter. Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.