In the pre-dawn hours of October 16, 2017, Hector Antonio Lemus-Flores, a 45-year-old Hispanic man, drove his 1998 Isuzu Rodeo to the Iglesia La Luz del Mundo on Cedar Avenue in Las Vegas, a place he frequented for early morning services. A father of two, Lemus-Flores was a devout churchgoer and a mechanic who was known for his love for his family and his participation in door-to-door Christian witnessing.
That morning, however, as he arrived for worship just after 5:30 a.m., his life was cut short by a single gunshot.
Fellow church members, hearing the sound of the shot, rushed outside to find Lemus-Flores lying on the ground next to his car, suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest. His Bible was found about 10 feet away from his body. One of his fellow parishioners was attempting to perform CPR when police and paramedics arrived. Lemus-Flores was transported to University Medical Center's trauma unit, where he succumbed to his injuries at approximately 6:15 a.m. Investigators initially suspected the motive could have been a robbery gone wrong, noting that the driver's side door of his vehicle was open, suggesting a possible struggle.
For over a year, the case remained unsolved. The investigation eventually led detectives to a suspect named Artavius Robinson, then 20 years old. Police learned from an associate of Robinson that he had allegedly confessed to the shooting, believing that Lemus-Flores was carrying cocaine. According to an inmate who was with Robinson after a DNA swab was taken, Robinson said he had approached Lemus-Flores and pointed a gun at him. When Lemus-Flores reached for a tool from his vehicle, Robinson allegedly became scared and fired.
Following the shooting, Robinson reportedly fled Las Vegas, first to California and then to Ohio, and altered his appearance by cutting off his dreadlocks. He was eventually arrested and booked on a murder charge in November 2018. Despite the information police gathered, Robinson denied his involvement in the death of Hector Lemus-Flores in multiple police interviews.
