Three men have been charged in a shooting that police say targeted a group after they witnessed an armed robbery. The case raises a distinction between the alleged motive in this shooting and the broader crime data and witness protections available in Nevada; neither, on its own, establishes how often witnesses are targeted.
Police say witnesses were targeted
The Las Vegas Review-Journal, citing an arrest report, reported that witnesses to a robbery were targeted in a shooting.
Investigators identified suspects using surveillance video, cellphone data and a witness account, the newspaper reported.
Brandon Jaymes Thomas McCoy, Raymond Duncan and Tywann Robert Hoyer-Pitts have been charged with murder. The Review-Journal reported that each faces 66 felonies and 28 gross misdemeanors. The men are accused; the charges are not findings of guilt. The newspaper also reported that Hoyer-Pitts acknowledged being at the restaurant and firing a rifle at a vehicle he said had followed him.
What the data and law can—and cannot—show
Nevada Crime Insight’s 2024 report provides violent-crime and murder statistics for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department: 7,533 violent crimes and 112 murders. Those figures offer broad context, not a measure of any one case.
Nevada law separately addresses intimidation or threats intended to dissuade a witness from reporting a crime or taking related steps in a prosecution, under NRS 199.305. The article does not report that anyone in this case was charged under that statute; the reported charges arise from the alleged shooting. The statute’s existence does not establish that its elements apply to these allegations.
For people seeking support during a court case, the Clark County District Attorney’s Victim Witness Assistance Center says it provides services and referrals to victims and witnesses through all phases of a case. The reporting does not say whether anyone connected to this case used the center.
