Inset: Brandan Lucas (GoFundMe). Background: The Five Below store in Las Vegas where Brandan Lucas was fatally shot (KTNV/YouTube).
A man walked into a Nevada Five Below store, asked for a particular employee, and later fatally shot him following a confrontation tied to what relatives and police described as suspicions about a “relationship” involving the victim and the suspect’s partner, who also worked at the store.
“Brandan Lucas was tragically taken from us in a senseless act of violence and jealousy,” a GoFundMe page says of Lucas, who was employed at a Five Below location in Las Vegas.
Lucas was working an afternoon shift on June 17 when the suspect, who has not been arrested, entered the store at about 4:30 p.m., according to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department press release.
“The suspect entered the business looking for the victim, who was later determined to be an employee of the business,” police said in the release. “Once the suspect located the individual, a physical altercation occurred. At some point, the suspect pulled out a firearm, shot the victim and fled the scene.”
Police were called to the Five Below in the 2100 block of North Rainbow Boulevard, where they found Lucas inside the store with a single gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
“I don’t think he knew the suspect at all,” Lucas’ cousin, Shekiera Wright, told local Fox affiliate KVVU. “I think the suspect is partner of a co-worker and I think there was some confusion along the lines of what the relationship with between my cousin and the coworker.”
Wright also told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that text messages between Lucas and the coworker appeared to have been misinterpreted, prompting the suspect to come to the store and confront him.
“This went way too far and our family’s life is forever affected,” Wright said. “We’re never going to be the same.”
Police say the suspect fled from the Five Below on foot. They have asked anyone with information about the shooting to contact the LVMPD Homicide Section.
