On a summer afternoon in Las Vegas, on June 18, 2020, the life of 26-year-old Dariane Lincoln-l, a Black/African American male, was tragically cut short. In the parking lot of the Siegel Suites on Bonanza Road, a paramedic witnessed a man approach a car, fire a single shot, and quickly flee the scene around 2:45 p.m. Dariane Lincoln-l was the victim of that fatal gunshot.
Despite being rushed to Valley Hospital Medical Center, he succumbed to a gunshot wound to the chest.
The Clark County coroner's office would later rule his death a homicide. In the immediate aftermath, the shooter, described as a Black man in his mid to late 20s, was seen running from the area, but no immediate arrests were made, leaving a void of answers for those who knew the young man.
More than a year after the shooting, a break in the case came on August 10, 2021, when police in California arrested Avondre Kelly, 24, and his girlfriend, Ashley Fuller. Kelly was charged with open murder and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle. Fuller faced a charge of harboring, concealing, or aiding a felony offender. Investigators pieced together a narrative suggesting that Kelly and Fuller had driven Lincoln-l to the hospital after the shooting but left without identifying themselves.
The vehicle they used, a Kia Sportage registered to Fuller, was later found abandoned in Los Angeles on July 29, 2020. Inside, investigators discovered a significant amount of blood evidence in the backseat. There were also signs that attempts had been made to clean the blood with bleach and other substances, a chilling testament to the efforts to conceal the crime. A container of gasoline was also found in the car, leading police to believe there may have been a plan to destroy the vehicle and the evidence within it.
