Though his name is Love, there wasn’t much of it surging through his system when he shot a homeless man at a local Las Vegas shopping center at the end of last month.
Brian Love, age 26, is being accused of killing the man at a plaza near 215 and Decatur, where he worked as a security guard. The murdered man was 27-year-old Max Jordan Garcia; currently, police are not sure of a city of residence for Garcia. Las Vegas criminal defense attorneys are puzzled at the current details available in this crime.
How did this happen? Was it warranted? Had there been a threat? How do investigators get to the bottom of this and serve justice, as needed?
Are There More Details of the Accused?
Reporter Sean Delancey shared that a company called SOS Security employed Brian Love. As per Kevin Ingram, the director of the Private Investigator Licensing Board, Love is licensed to work in the state of Nevada and has held his license for several years. He passed a full background check and fingerprinting before being given his license; as well, he passed the firearms test. So he was legally and rightfully employed, bottom line.
How Did The Crime Occur?
Brian Love admitted that he did NOT call 911 after shooting the victim 15 times. Instead, Love climbed back into his SOS Security patrol car and drove away to finish his rounds.
Max Jordan Garcia was the father of two, young girls. His body was not discovered until hours later. That’s right; Love never telephoned 911 after randomly and maliciously shooting Garcia 15 times.
Victim’s Body Left for Seven Hours
Employees at Massage Envy built a memorial at the Shadow Mountain Marketplace to honor Garcia, who was killed beside their business. Isabella Cerio and Nicole Melton lit seven candles and placed a bouquet of flowers at the spot where police claim Garcia lay for seven hours after the shooting. “Hours and hours he was just by himself,” Melton said. She added that the seven candles represented the seven hours between when Garcia was shot, and when police discovered his lifeless body.
“It’s the least we could do for him,” she said. “Nobody should have to die alone and then not be found until several hours later, especially in public.”
Security Footage Helps Identify Suspect
Security footage in the business complex (which helped Metro identify Love as the suspect) shows Love and Garcia talking briefly before Love opened fire. There wasn’t an indication of any sort of struggle. Garcia had simply been asleep on the sidewalk in the middle of the night on June 29th when Love found him, woke him, and murdered him.
Love was taken into custody and is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center, awaiting his preliminary hearing, scheduled for August 28th. His charged include one count of murder with a deadly weapon.
Family Members Remember the Victim
Garcia’s 2-year-old daughter, Ripley, was present at a memorial held for Garcia where a crowd of about 100 people gathered to honor him. “He wanted to be everything he could for her,” Ripley’s mother, Alexis Mendoza said. “She was the light of his life.”
Garcia’s girlfriend, Lexi Gibson, age 28, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Garcia had left her home two days before the shooting to sleep on the streets, in an attempt to prove to her that he could make it on his own.