A heartbroken man from New Mexico can’t comprehend why a North Las Vegas, Nevada, man killed three of his family members this week and left his 13-year-old granddaughter in critical condition in a “senseless” shooting spree.
Sal Muñoz, 59, of Albuquerque, made the nearly 600-mile drive to the Las Vegas Valley on Tuesday morning after he learned someone fatally shot his ex-wife, daughter and grandson and seriously wounded his granddaughter Monday night at an apartment complex.
Police identified the suspect as Eric Adams, 47, who died by suicide Tuesday morning as authorities closed in during a search for him, officials said.
“It’s just very hurtful,” Muñoz told NBC News late Wednesday afternoon. “A senseless act. He goes into somebody’s house and starts shooting people.”
Relative identifies his three loved ones killed
Muñoz said that his ex-wife, Damiana "Anna" Muñoz, 59; his daughter, Amy Muñoz, 40; and his grandson, Christopher Damian, in his early 20s; were killed in the shooting and that his 13-year-old granddaughter, Olivia Muñoz, was critically injured. Authorities have not officially released the names of Muñoz's family members.
The Clark County Coroner's Office said Wednesday night that Kayla Harris, 24, died from wounds to her head, her neck and her chest.
Another woman killed in the rampage has not been publicly identified.
The Las Vegas Police Department’s Force Investigation Team is assisting in the investigation, North Las Vegas police said.
North Las Vegas police have said officers initially responded to an apartment complex shortly after 10 p.m. Monday and found two wounded women in their early 40s and late 50s, who were later pronounced dead. A wounded 13-year-old girl was also at the apartment, police said.
Muñoz said the apartment belonged to his ex-wife, who lived upstairs from Adams, whom she sometimes drove to the bus stop so he could get to work.
Adams, however, did not live at the apartment, according a Thursday statement from police described as the final details of the investigation.
Instead, police said he was visiting his 45-year-old ex-girlfriend who lives on a ground-floor apartment at the complex.
Muñoz said that his 16-year-old son told him that he was also in the apartment when the shooting began but that the gunman did not know he was inside. The teen was not injured.
Suspect 'unaware there were two additional people out of sight in the upstairs apartment'
On Thursday, police said: "Adams was unaware there were two additional people out of sight in the upstairs apartment and they were not harmed. The two unharmed people were later identified as additional family members, both in their late teens."
At a nearby apartment, officials discovered two other women in their mid-20s and a man in his early 20s who had been shot, police said.
The two female victims were described by police on Thursday as a 24-year-old woman who was Adams' ex-girlfriend's daughter, and the daughter's 22-year-old girlfriend.
Adams and his ex-girlfriend got into an argument that preceded the shooting at the downstairs apartment, police said.
“I’m not sure what was going through [Adams'] mind," Muñoz said.
Muñoz said his son, who survived the shooting, has shared an account of how the violence unfolded Monday night: Shortly before the shooting, Muñoz said, his grandson, Damian, got a call from the daughter of Adams’ girlfriend, telling him to come downstairs to play video games.
Two people were dead when Damian arrived, and then Damian was shot, Muñoz said his son told him.
But police on Thursday said a 20-year-old man who knew the women on the ground floor "overheard the argument and went downstairs to see if he could intervene and help the women. For unknown reasons, Adams shot the man inside the downstairs apartment."
Damian’s mother went downstairs to check on her son and told Adams she was going to call police, Muñoz said. Adams followed her upstairs, according to Muñoz, and he fatally shot Muñoz's daughter and ex-wife and wounded his granddaughter.
Police confirmed that following the shooting downstairs, Adams went upstairs and fatally shot a 59-year-old woman, a 40-year-old woman and critically injured the 13-year-old girl while the two teens went unnoticed in the apartment.
Muñoz struggled to find the words to describe his slain family members. He said his daughter, Amy, was on the verge of becoming a professional respiratory therapist.
“I’m still grieving. I’m not going to have them in my life anymore,” he said.
Following the bloodshed at the complex, police said, Adams took his ex-girlfriend hostage and drove away.
On Tuesday morning, according to North Las Vegas police, Adams' ex-girlfriend was able to escape him and she approached a Las Vegas police officer on patrol who was working on an unrelated traffic stop. Adams' ex-girlfriend was unharmed, polices said.
She told the Las Vegas police officer what occurred at the apartment complex, police said.
Police said on Thursday the investigation is ongoing.
'He wasn’t perfect, but he was still my son'
Bobbie Anne Adams told NBC News on Wednesday that her son, Eric, was attending church and trying to live a positive life. Adams, who had six children, worked odd jobs, was a good singer and kept the family laughing at reunions, she said.
“What was done that night, I don’t wear it like a trophy. But he loved his family, his mother and his children,” she said. “He wasn’t perfect, but he was still my son.”
Adams had a criminal history that dates back decades, and in February he was charged with domestic battery by strangulation, according to NBC affiliateKSNV of Las Vegas.
His previous arrests include charges of burglary with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm, trafficking cocaine, battery of a prisoner and battery of a police officer, the station reported.
