In the early morning hours of August 24, 2020, the life of 37-year-old Anthony Groce, a male resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, was tragically cut short. His body was discovered in a desolate desert lot near the intersection of Bonanza Road and H Street after residents in the area reported the chilling sound of gunfire piercing the pre-dawn silence at approximately 3:15 a.m.
The Clark County coroner’s office would later confirm that Groce died from multiple gunshot wounds, ruling his death a homicide. Although official records identified him as Anthony Gross, his family has stated that the correct spelling of his last name is Groce.
The investigation into Groce's murder led detectives to a 7-Eleven convenience store on Martin Luther King Boulevard, a place Groce had visited shortly before his death. Surveillance footage from the store captured Groce with another man, later identified as 36-year-old James Smith Jr. The two were seen together just before the shooting. A crucial piece of evidence came from Smith himself; he used a debit card to make a purchase at the store, a transaction that would ultimately lead police directly to him. This electronic trail, coupled with the video evidence, placed Smith with the victim in his final hours.
Following the trail of evidence, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department detectives were able to identify and locate James Smith Jr. as the primary suspect in the shooting death of Anthony Groce. Smith was subsequently arrested and charged with murder. While the motive for the killing remains unclear, police records indicate that Groce's family had mentioned a possible altercation at a gas station prior to the shooting. However, Groce's sister has refuted this claim, leaving the true reason for this violent act a painful mystery. The arrest of Smith brought a swift, if not entirely clarifying, development in a case that began with the lonely discovery of a man's body in the quiet darkness of a Las Vegas morning.
