Authorities used social media and facial recognition technology to track down a suspect in the killing of a man in North Las Vegas, according to police and court records.
Kenneth Lee Rapier, 27, is charged with murder, grand larceny of a motor vehicle and robbery with use of a deadly weapon in the Feb. 1 slaying of Genaro Patterson Jr., 36.
Patterson suffered a gunshot wound to the chest in the 100 block of East Centennial Parkway, near Losee Road, at 3:06 a.m. Feb. 1, police said.
A North Las Vegas police detective wrote in an affidavit that video surveillance from the area where the killing occurred showed a rented Corvette and the victim’s vehicle at the crime scene prior to the killing.
One witness told police she heard people arguing prior to the shooting, and another witness told police that the gunman was known as “43,” police said.
Police later located Instagram videos posted the day prior that police said depicted the same Corvette. At the bottom of the clip was the tag “43,” police said. A profile photograph from the Instagram account was put into facial recognition software, which returned a match for Rapier, police said.
Police then located more surveillance video from a Las Vegas business that depicted Rapier as a passenger in the Corvette.
Police said a warrant for Rapier’s cell phone produced data placing him in the area of the killing at the time it unfolded.
Court records show an arrest warrant was issued for Rapier on Feb. 9 and he was arrested on May 11. His next court appearance in North Las Vegas Justice Court is scheduled for June 10.
Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com.
