On May 23, 2021, 21-year-old Sarif El-Amin II was fatally shot in Las Vegas, Nevada. The incident occurred near the 3800 block of Royal Crest Street, close to the intersection of Twain Avenue and University Drive. At approximately 5 a.m., Metropolitan Police Department officers responded to a ShotSpotter notification of gunshots in the area. Upon arrival, they found El-Amin inside a crashed 2019 Honda Accord, suffering from a gunshot wound to the back.
Despite medical efforts, El-Amin died at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, and his death was ruled a homicide by the Clark County coroner's office.
The investigation led to the identification and arrest of two primary suspects: 21-year-old Rayann Korte Griffith and her 22-year-old brother, Devawn Korte Griffith. The arrests were made on June 1, 2021, following a thorough investigation that utilized social media and cell phone records to link the siblings to the crime scene. According to Rayann's statement to the police, she had been with El-Amin earlier that night, and he had driven her to her apartment on Royal Crest Street. She then called her brother to bring her apartment keys, which she had left in his car. Devawn arrived with another man, later identified as Daniel Pirtle-Torrence, and the group encountered El-Amin outside his vehicle. When El-Amin refused to show them his firearm, he was shot and subsequently drove away, crashing his car shortly afterward.
Rayann and Devawn Griffith were booked into the Clark County Detention Center and faced charges of open murder, robbery, conspiracy to commit murder, and conspiracy to commit robbery. Devawn refused to speak to the police and requested a lawyer. The siblings were later indicted in July 2021 on additional charges, including conspiracy to commit kidnapping, kidnapping with a deadly weapon, robbery with a deadly weapon, and murder with a deadly weapon. A jury trial for the Griffiths was scheduled to begin on June 27, 2022.
A third suspect, 24-year-old Daniel Pirtle-Torrence, was arrested on September 2, 2021, more than three months after the fatal shooting. Pirtle-Torrence was identified through cellphone records that placed him at the scene of the crime with the Griffith siblings. He was charged with murder with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit murder. During his arrest, Pirtle-Torrence denied being at the scene, despite the evidence linking him to the crime. He remained in the Clark County Detention Center without bail and was scheduled to appear in court.
The arrests and subsequent charges were the result of a detailed investigation that included witness statements and forensic evidence. Witnesses reported hearing a single gunshot followed by a vehicle crash and described seeing a thin Black man near the car who then left the scene in a white Chevrolet Camaro. The police were able to piece together the events leading to El-Amin's death through the statements provided by Rayann Griffith and the analysis of cell phone records, which confirmed the presence of all suspects at the crime scene.
