In the early morning hours of January 21, 2017, a normal Saturday took a tragic turn for 24-year-old Alberto Sanchez-Delatorre. A Hispanic male, Sanchez-Delatorre was at the OK Corral bar located at 1602 N. Nellis Blvd. in Las Vegas when a physical altercation erupted with another man. The confrontation seemed to have ended when the other man left the establishment.
However, the assailant later returned, this time armed with a handgun, and opened fire in the doorway of the bar just after 7 a.m.
Alberto Sanchez-Delatorre was struck by multiple gunshots and was found by police in the entrance of the bar. He succumbed to his injuries at the scene. During the chaotic shooting, a waitress was also unintentionally shot in the leg; her injuries were not considered life-threatening and she was transported to a local hospital for treatment. The gunman fired between four and six shots before fleeing the scene. A security guard pursued the shooter through the parking lot and into a nearby neighborhood, but the suspect managed to escape.
Following the shooting, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department began an investigation and sought help from the public to identify the person responsible. Authorities released a description of the suspect as a light-skinned Hispanic man in his 20s, with prescription glasses and a ponytail, last seen wearing a black shirt and blue jeans. Police were also looking for a woman in a white car who was seen dropping the shooter off at the bar prior to the incident.
The investigation eventually led to the identification and arrest of a suspect. Law enforcement officials took Joel Nunez-Cruz into custody in connection with the fatal shooting of Alberto Sanchez-Delatorre. It was also reported that the suspect in the homicide was wanted in connection with a series of other robberies in the Las Vegas Valley. The tragic death of Alberto Sanchez-Delatorre was the 11th homicide investigated by Metro police in 2017.
