Man fatally beaten at car show in downtown Las Vegas, report says
A man was beaten to death last month at a car show in downtown Las Vegas, according to a newly released arrest report.
The report states that Armando Munoz-Armas, 30, died Sept. 4, a day after he was beaten up on North Ninth Street near East Ogden Avenue.
Santiago Vargas was charged with murder on Sept. 21, and the Metropolitan Police Department released his arrest report this week.
Detectives spoke to the victim’s family, who said a fight ensued when members of the Cali Riders car group confronted another person, whose name was redacted in the arrest report, about “shoddy work” on their vehicles.
Vargas and Munoz-Armas had known each other for more than two decades, but they had been fighting over the last two years, according to the report.
The Clark County coroner’s office ruled that Munoz-Armas, who lived in North Las Vegas, died from blunt force injuries of the head.
Vargas posted $25,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court again in November.
Metro did not issue a news release regarding the killing or the subsequent arrest. The Las Vegas Review-Journal recently has learned of two other homicides that the department did not announce.
Timothy Darrell Dabney Jr., 23, was shot at 11:19 p.m. Aug. 13 in a parking lot on the 2800 block of South Nellis Boulevard, near East Vegas Valley Drive, Metro said in response to an inquiry from the Review-Journal.
The coroner’s office ruled that Dabney, whose city of residence is unknown, died just before 10 a.m. Aug. 15 at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center from a gunshot wound to the torso.
No arrests had been made as of Friday, and police consider the shooting a case of self-defense, according to online homicide logs maintained by Metro.
On Sept. 9, 62-year-old Valerie Whitaker of Las Vegas was found dead from a gunshot wound to the chest in the living room of a home on the 2700 block of Agate Avenue, according to the coroner’s office.
Metro would not provide any information related to Whitaker’s killing, citing an open investigation.
The coroner’s office has ruled the death a homicide, but no arrests had been made as of Friday.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.