Las Vegas police arrest man wanted in St. Patrick’s Day homicide
A man wanted by Las Vegas police in the fatal shooting of his nephew during a fight over money was arrested Thursday after barricading himself in a northeast valley home.
Metropolitan Police Department homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said the man, Ruben Tavarez, was peacefully taken into custody following an hourslong standoff in a neighborhood near West Walnut and East Alexander roads. Spencer did not release further details, including how police had located Tavarez.
The man is charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the St. Patrick’s Day shooting that left his sister’s 28-year-old son, Gerardo Romero, dead. Police have said the shooting took place in the backyard of his sister’s home on the 2100 block of Houston Drive, near Eastern Avenue and Charleston Boulevard.
On the night of the shooting, according to the suspect’s arrest report, Tavarez accused his nephew of selling him a fake gold ring.
“After the transaction was complete, Tavarez did not believe the ring was real gold and soaked the ring in bleach overnight,” the report states. The next day, the ring had apparently began to turn black.
After the suspect confronted Romero, the argument escalated and spilled out into the backyard.
From inside the house, according to the report, Tavarez’s sister heard her son screaming, “Stop!”
When the woman stepped outside to check on the two, the report states, her brother was gone, and her son was on the ground, bleeding.
The woman called 911 and identified her brother as the shooter to detectives. By the following morning, court records show, a warrant for Tavarez’s arrest had been issued.
According to the records, Tavarez is a felon and was on probation when the shooting occurred. He has a history of arrests in Las Vegas dating to 2006 and was convicted in Clark County of conspiracy to commit a crime in 2016 and illegal possession of a firearm in September.
In December, the records show, he was sentenced to up to three years probation in the weapons case. The conditions of his probation included staying out of trouble and forfeiting all weapons.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter. Staff writer Sabrina Schnur contributed to this report.