NLV police used video, spent cartridges to identify murder suspect

North Las Vegas police used video surveillance footage and spent bullet cartridges to identify a teen suspect in the homicide last summer of another teen in the parking lot of a Smith’s grocery store.

Authorities in Los Angeles on Monday arrested T Coal McKinley, 18, on an arrest warrant issued in North Las Vegas on July 17, days after Theajon Alexander, 18, was shot multiple times outside the store at 2255 E. Centennial Parkway, police said in court documents.

On July 12, at 1:30 p.m., Alexander was seated inside a vehicle in the lot outside Smith’s when he was shot three times in the lower half of his body, put his vehicle in reverse at a high speed and crashed into three vehicles, according to the documents.

He was taken to University Medical Center, where he died soon afterward, based on the filing.

Officers examined footage from video cameras in the shopping area and viewed Alexander exit his vehicle with a water jug and later return with the jug, which he placed back into the vehicle, police reported in the documents.

The video then showed a person with a white cloth over their head walk over to Alexander’s vehicle, peer into the windshield, come back a short time later and fire multiple shots into the victim’s vehicle, police reported.

The assailant then ran to a car and sped off, with the wheels screeching, from the parking lot onto Losee Road, according to police.

Investigators recovered 11 9 mm cartridges at the scene and noticed three bullet holes in the driver’s side of the car and one impact on the windshield, according to police.

From the video evidence, detectives were able to record the license plate number of the suspect vehicle and the light-colored shorts, gray socks and black low-top shoes worn by the alleged shooter, police stated.

A detective, according to court filings, found that McKinley had been wearing similar shoes and socks in a video taken of him during a traffic stop in North Las Vegas in June 2023.

With a search warrant, police entered McKinley’s residence and recovered a 9 mm cartridge matching the ones located at the shooting scene, socks like the type worn by the suspect and a receipt for a drink bought near the time and area of the shooting, police reported.

Police also found a white T-shirt they believe that the shooter used to cover his face, they stated.

McKinley, charged with open murder, did not appear Wednesday in North Las Vegas online jail records and his next court date also was not listed in the city’s Justice Court records.

Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on X.