Accused teenage Serial Killer Denies Involvement in Three Vegas Murders
Surveillance footage of the suspect believed to be involved in three separate murders in Las Vegas between January and June of 2022. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
the first murder
Multiple calls came in to 911 on the night of January 18, 2022 with a report of gunshots at the Tropicana Royale apartment complex just west of the intersection of Eastern and Tropicana. Officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrived at the sprawling development of two-story octuplex homes around 3:45 a.m. that chilly night and soon discovered a vehicle with the motionless body of a young man lying in the trunk.
The police readily determined that the man – later identified as 26-year-old Tevin Alhashemi – had suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Alhashemi was declared dead upon being brought to nearby Sunrise Hospital.
Homicide detectives investigating the Alhashemi murder had no way of knowing at this time that they were on the trail of a suspect that would join the ranks of serial killers that have stalked Sin City.
Scene of one of three murders committed along East Tropicana Avenue in Las Vegas from early-to-mid 2022. (Google Maps)
random violence in southeast vegas
62-year-old Paulo Viana waited at a bus stop on East Tropicana Avenue in the early morning hours on May 4, 2022, not far from the intersection of Nellis Boulevard.
Viana had not noticed a man clad in dark clothing tracking him as he made his way to the bus stop. Shortly before 2:15 a.m., this mystery man approached Viana as he waited for his bus. A brief altercation ensued before several sharp cracks from a handgun cut through the gentle din of light traffic flowing along nearby Boulder Highway and the US 95.
A call reporting the shooting came in within moments of the crime, but Las Vegas police were already aware of the incident before anyone dialed 911. Metro utilizes technology by the name of ShotSpotter to identify gunfire that occurs within the Las Vegas area, and this system provided police an alert shortly after the shooting occurred.
Viana did not survive the shooting. And investigators had little information to go on, with the only concrete information being that the suspected killer was wearing dark clothing that he took off and discarded as he fled the murder.
Unfortunately, it would not be long before the unknown shooter struck again on the eastern side of Las Vegas.
Mugshot photo of Alonzo “AJ” Brown, arrested in connection with the murders of Josue Nain-Chaparro-Montalvo, Paulo Viana, and Tevin Alhashemi (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
teenage serial killer?
Josue Nain-Chaparro-Montalvo, a 36-year-old construction worker and graduate of Basic High School, was walking along Tropicana Avenue on the night of June 23, 2022 after visiting an area convenience store. Surveillance video would later show a man clad in a puffy jacket and disguised in a ski mask following Nain-Chaparro-Montalvo as he left the store.
Somewhere near Tropicana Avenue and Boulder Highway, the man in the puffy jacket fired several shots at the young husband and father. The suspect then fled and again took off his clothes as he ran from the murder scene.
Homicide detectives quickly connected the murders of Viana and Nain-Chaparro-Montalvo and put significant resources into identifying the man responsible for the two slayings. Surveillance footage of the unknown suspect and information about his clothing recovered from near the crime scenes was released to the public at a press conference.
Soon investigators received information from a relative indicating the puffy jacket was owned by a relative by the name of Alonzo “AJ” Brown. Detectives then identified bodycam footage from 2021 where Brown was interviewed during an investigation into a hit-and-run near Whitney Library. Brown was wearing clothing similar to that found near the murder sites.
Police executed a warrant on June 27, 2022 and arrested the 18-year-old suspect as he left his home located only about 300 feet from the double homicides along Tropicana Avenue. Brown had two handguns on him at the time he was taken into custody – one hidden in a backpack and one concealed in his underwear. Testing later linked one of the two firearms with the murders of Viana and Nain-Chaparro-Montalvo.
It would be months before police linked Brown to the Alhashemi murder. Investigators believe Brown and Alhashemi were acquaintances and that the two had an altercation before the shooting. Alhashemi also had a significant criminal history of his own - he had been released from prison in 2020 after serving time for battery with a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm.
Alonzo Brown denied his involvement in three murders in southeast Las Vegas in 2022. One of Brown’s alleged victims, Tevin Alhashemi, had his own criminal issues covered in the local newspaper in 2016. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
denials by brown
Alonzo Brown is currently incarcerated at the Clark County Detention Center while awaiting a trial scheduled for 2023. After Brown’s arrest in June, police announced that DNA evidence links him to the crimes. Investigators also believe Brown was responsible for another shooting in 2022 that did not result in any injuries.
In late-2022, Brown gave a jailhouse interview with reporter David Charns of KLAS where he denied being a serial killer.
“I’m surely not an accused serial killer,” Brown told Charns. “I’m just a 19-year-old young man trying to figure out life. It’s strange because why would an 18-year-old kid, who has nothing besides speeding tickets, just wake up one day and say, ‘Well, you know what, let me go ahead, let me go ahead and do a homicide.”
Brown claims to know the identity of the real killer, but when asked to divulge a name he told KLAS, “I wouldn’t feel right putting the person’s name out there.”