Coroner IDs Uber driver killed in shooting in front of Strip resort

The man was Michael Wilmot, 50, of Las Vegas, Clark County coroner’s office spokesperson Stephanie Wheatley said in an email Wednesday.

Wilmot’s cause of death was a gunshot wound to the torso, she said.

Lt. Jason Johansson of the Metropolitan Police Department homicide section said in a Monday briefing that an Uber driver left his Jeep Cherokee — which had two passengers inside — and banged on the driver’s side window of a Subaru, which contained a woman in her 20s. The woman then shot him.

Police said the Uber driver pulled his gun after he was shot but collapsed before he could use it.

The case has been submitted to the district attorney’s office for self-defense review, according to Metro. Authorities have not released the suspect’s name.

Johansson said police used the license plate to find the address of the Subaru’s registered owner, then arrested the suspect on charges unrelated to the shooting.

Wilmot’s cousin, Tracy Brasby, said he previously worked as a motorcycle mechanic. He lost his home after his mother died and had been living in his car for about a year, she said.

She last spoke to him about five months ago and he told her Las Vegas was expensive and it was hard to find a place to stay.

Valerie Wilmot, Wilmot’s sister-in-law, said he had a difficult life. As a baby, she said, his biological mother abandoned him and he was left, with cigarette burns on the bottoms of his feet, on the doorstep of Mary Wilmot, the woman who became his mother.

Wilmot was “a cute little hyper boy” who seemed resilient but never broke away from his mother, Valerie Wilmot said. He lived with his mother, even as an adult, and at the end of her life, he cared for her because he didn’t want to put her in a nursing home.

“He was always there for her,” she said.

When Mary Wilmot died at age 84 in 2020, Wilmot didn’t take the loss well, according to his sister-in-law, who said she’d been concerned about his mental health.

On Facebook, Wilmot wrote about his mother’s death and his struggles. “I miss you mom,” he said in 2020, days after her death.

In a comment, he wrote, “It’s been very difficult but every day looks a little brighter.”

Wilmot was a loner, according to Valerie Wilmot, and was not in close touch with her or her husband.

Even though they hadn’t spoken in about two years, the circumstances of his death are still upsetting.

“Nobody deserves this,” she said.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.