LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Police say they’ve arrested a man who allegedly shot cellphone video of himself shooting three bullets into the garage of his house in the west valley, leaving his girlfriend’s brother lying with a bullet in his head, in a pool of blood, with little chance of survival.
A report from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department says Francis Centeno, 22, confessed to shooting his girlfriend’s brother on March 29 and recording the entire thing. The man lived in the garage of their home and police say the two had an ongoing feud. Police responded to the home on at least one prior occasion – in February – for a “domestic dispute,” the report says.
The victim’s mother said Centeno and her son “have never gotten along,” the report said.
Centeno and his girlfriend share a 1-year-old daughter and have been dating for three years, the report says, adding that the toddler was home at the time of the shooting.
Centeno admitted to shooting three rounds through the wall and reloading the magazine and then “stashing the gun in the car located within the garage of the residence,” the report said.
Police say Centeno was acting strange and telling family “someone was coming for them,” according to Metro’s report. The report says his girlfriend came into her bedroom while she was sleeping, and after Centeno left the room, she heard “two or three pops.”
The woman told police Centeno told her to “go check on her brother,” who sleeps in the garage, according to the report.
“She heard sounds of snoring coming through the garage,” the report said. “She opened the garage door and found [the victim] laying on the garage floor, just inside the garage door, and bleeding from the head.”
Police say they brought the man to UMC Trauma where he was treated for a gunshot wound to his head and “remains on life support with an unknown recovery status.”
Centeno, a two-time convicted felon, told police he hid the gun, a 9mm, after the shooting because “he knows he is not allowed to possess guns,” the report said.
Centeno originally told police that he “heard a group of people outside being loud,” and that the group “started to break into the bedroom through the window,” the report said. He told police “he fired three shots at the wall because he was protecting his family,” the report said.
He then gave the police the passcode to his phone so they could see the “group,” but they did not notice any type of disturbance, the report said.
Centeno said he purchased the the handgun “off the streets a while back,” the report said.
The report also said Centeno told them he drank alcohol “and smoked some weed about two hours before the shooting.”
Centeno faces charges of attempted murder with a deadly weapon; three counts of discharging a gun within a structure/vehicle within a prohibited area; owning or possessing a gun by a prohibited person; battery with the use of a deadly weapon resulting in serious bodily harm, according to public record.
Centeno was held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center. His preliminary court appearance was scheduled for April 15, court records show.
