Mistaken identity led to shooting death of teen, report says

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A case of mistaken identity in a conflict between two groups led to the shooting death of a North Las Vegas teen, police documents said.

On July 15 at 11:29 p.m., dispatchers received a call reporting that the caller’s friend, identified as Bryce McKinney, 18 of North Las Vegas, had been shot in a parking lot near Post and Fort Apache roads in west Las Vegas.

Detectives interviewed witnesses and found that McKinney had been visiting friends in the area, documents indicate. While he had been preparing to leave, the witnesses heard gunshots, and McKinney was thrown to the ground, documents said.

While officers were en route to the scene, the caller told the dispatcher that his friends had taken McKinney to an area hospital, police said. McKinney arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound to his abdomen, the report said. Approximately two and a half hours after the shooting was reported, McKinney died.

Other witnesses reported the gunshots, including one who told dispatchers that he heard a vehicle speeding off near his home, the documents said. Bullets had struck apartments and another vehicle in the area, police documents indicated. Additionally, police investigators said they found bullet casings in another location, leading them to believe that to be the location from which the gunshots had been fired.

Detectives determined a vehicle seen in doorbell camera video of a separate shooting on the same night, approximately an hour before, had been involved in the fatal shooting of Bryce McKinney. Investigators found surveillance video showing the vehicle in the area of the shooting. Police said the video shows five people exiting the vehicle and walking down the street before muzzle flashes are seen, and the group is observed rushing back to the SUV and leaving the scene.

The individuals were identified by investigators after security video from a convenience store showed the same SUV parking and its inhabitants entering the store approximately 45 minutes before the deadly shooting.

Clark County School District Police were able to identify two of the people captured in the security camera video. Additionally, investigators searched social media accounts, finding photos of individuals matching images from the convenience store surveillance video.

A witness told police that she had been on a video call and overheard an individual identified as Devin Mansch, 19, discussing the shooting death of McKinney, saying that Mansch had heard that someone was “talking negatively about their motorcycle club,” so he had shot him before burning his own clothes.

Nearly a month and a half after the shooting, detectives received a call from Mansch’s father, who told investigators that a few days after the shooting, Mansch had come to him upset, saying that he had “accidentally shot someone.” Mansch had been given handguns by his mother since he was supposed to be enlisting in the military, police documents said.

According to the police documents, Mansch had said that the shooting was part of an ongoing feud between two groups and that the wrong person had been killed. Police documents said that Mansch had told his father that he had destroyed the weapon.

On Oct. 20, Mansch was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges of open murder with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit murder, and four counts of discharging a gun into an occupied structure. As of Monday, Mansch is in custody, being held without bail according to legal records, and is next due in court on Nov. 8.