Teen charged in shooting overheard talking at school, police say

A teenager arrested in connection with the shooting of an Army veteran last month was identified by a high school classmate who knew the victim, according to a police report.

Victor Arzola-Rivera, 19, is suspected of shooting Brandon Liberty, 30, during a robbery plot behind the two men’s apartment complex, according to an arrest report from the Metropolitan Police Department released Wednesday.

Liberty told police he was walking his dogs around 1 a.m. on Oct. 27 near North Honolulu Street and Lighthouse Avenue when three people started following him. When his dogs stopped to sniff around, Liberty said one of them held up a gun.

“Welp you know what’s happening, Give me your money,” a man said to Liberty, according to the report.

But Liberty didn’t have his wallet, and when he told the group that, they threatened to shoot him again. Police said he took off running and was shot in the shoulder and leg.

One of the men stood over him with a gun to the head and threatened to take his dogs. Liberty screamed for help, and the trio ran off.

“He started blacking out, and the dogs started licking his face to keep him conscious,” his father, Michael Liberty, told the Review-Journal after the shooting. “He lost over 2 liters of blood at the scene. He had to be transfused here at (University Medical Center).”

Liberty is an Army veteran who served a year in Afghanistan. Now, he works as a graveyard shift security officer to support his fiancee’s four children, his parents said.

A relative of Liberty told police that later that day at school, she heard Arzola-Rivera talk about the shooting while they were in the lunchroom. She sent Liberty a link to Arzola-Rivera’s Instagram page, and he confirmed that was the man who shot him, police said.

The relative told police that Arzola-Rivera and Liberty live in the same apartment complex. Officers confirmed this information with the Clark County School District, according to the report.

The name of the school was redacted from the report.

Arzola-Rivera told police he only takes that trail to go to a friend’s house and he was not involved in the shooting because he was asleep at the time.

When Liberty identified Arzola-Rivera in a lineup, he wrote: “I am 100% that is the man who shot me. Every time I close my eyes I see his face and I’ve been seeing him around my apartment since the shooting,” according to the report.

The parents said doctors expect him to survive. His friends and family have started a GoFundMe page which had raised more than $18,000 by Saturday.

“Brandon’s staples were removed yesterday and he has very limited movement in his arm and shoulder,” Liberty’s mother wrote in an update to the campaign Wednesday. “He starts physical therapy soon and is hopeful to regain strength and mobility in his shoulder, arm, and leg.”

Arzola-Rivera was arrested Nov. 5 and charged with two counts of attempted murder, battery resulting in substantial bodily harm and conspiracy to commit robbery. Court records indicate he is being held on $50,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court again for a preliminary hearing Tuesday.

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.