In the late hours of a summer night in Las Vegas, a 19-year-old Black / African American man named David Roman Tauiliili lost his life in a tragic and violent encounter. On August 12, 2019, at approximately 1 a.m., a 911 call was placed by the boyfriend of Tauiliili's roommate, reporting an accidental shooting at their apartment in the southwest part of the city. When police arrived, they found Tauiliili with a gunshot wound.
He was rushed to University Medical Center, where he fought for his life for three days before succumbing to his injuries on August 15, 2019. The Clark County coroner's office later confirmed that he died from a gunshot wound to the head and ruled his death a homicide.
The roommate, 20-year-old Maya Santos, was identified as the one who fired the weapon. Her account of the events that transpired that night was inconsistent. Initially, she claimed that she and Tauiliili were on their patio watching YouTube videos about firearms when she began to "waive it around" and accidentally shot him. Santos told investigators she had removed the magazine from one of the two handguns present, and assumed the other was unloaded, admitting she never checked the chamber for a cartridge. The handguns, she confessed, had been illegally purchased off the internet following a discussion with her roommates about home security.
However, the evidence began to contradict Santos's story of a simple accident. An autopsy revealed a wound that suggested the gun was pressed to Tauiliili’s head at the time of the shooting. When confronted with this information during a second interview on August 19, Santos changed her story. She then claimed that she and Tauiliili were "acting out what they would do if a burglar came into the house" when she extended her arm, pulled the trigger, and shot him. Following this admission, Maya Santos was arrested and charged with the murder of her roommate. She was booked into the Clark County Detention Center. In the wake of his death, Tauiliili's mother set up an online fundraiser and made the decision to donate his organs.
