LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained reveal how Las Vegas police tracked down two teenagers accused of intentionally hitting and killing a bicyclist and recording it on video.
Both Jesus Ayala, 18; and Jzamir Keys, 16, are accused of killing Andreas “Andy” Probst, 64, a retired California police chief. Probst was riding a bicycle in a marked lane on Aug. 14 near Tenaya Way and Centennial Parkway in the northwest Las Vegas valley when Ayala intentionally crashed into him, documents said.
The now-viral video of the incident circulated within several Las Vegas high schools in the weeks after the murder, according to documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained. It was not until a student approached a school resource officer in late August that Metro police learned the act appeared intentional, documents said.
The stolen car that Ayala and Keys allegedly used to murder Probst was found ditched near Craig Road and Jones Boulevard – less than 10 minutes from the crash site, sources told the 8 News Now Investigators.
The stolen vehicle was located with blood on its windshield.
About a half-hour before Probst’s murder, the teenagers allegedly attempted to hit another bicyclist in the area of Fort Apache and Washburn roads, police said. In the hours after Probst’s death, the teenagers allegedly stole two more cars in the area of Lake Mead Boulevard and Torrey Pines Drive, sources said.
About an hour after allegedly hitting and killing Probst, the teenagers took the two stolen cars and crashed them into each other near a shopping plaza at Lake Mead and Rainbow boulevards, sources said. The teenagers then allegedly broke into a garage where they took several items, and returned to the area where Probst was hit and killed in one of the two-crashed stolen cars.
Officers managed to take Ayala into custody, but Keys ran off, sources said.
Last week, detectives interviewed a student who told them “Jzamir ‘killed that guy on the bike,’” that Keys had shared the video and had more videos on his phone, documents said.
Detectives later located more videos from Aug. 14 and a request from Keys to a student to delete the video, documents said. The videos include the one shared online of the car hitting Probst and from the earlier attempted murder, police said.
Keys was allegedly the driver in the first bicyclist hit-and-run, which police are classifying as an attempted murder. Ayala is accused of driving the stolen car in Probst’s death, police said.
Both Ayala and Keys’ faces appear in the videos, documents said.
Cell phone data from both Ayala and Keys placed them in and around the site of Probst’s murder, as well as several other alleged crimes, from the morning of Aug. 14, documents said.
Detectives later obtained cell phone video of a fight involving Keys from mid-September, which showed him wearing the same shoes as seen in the videos on Aug. 14, documents said.
Police arrested Keys on Tuesday. As the 8 News Now Investigators reported in August, police did not have enough evidence in the weeks after the crash to charge Ayala with murder since the video did not surface for two weeks.
Ayala, who was 17 at the time of the alleged crime spree, faced 18 charges, including murder, attempted murder, battery with the use of a deadly weapon, leaving the scene of an accident, and numerous larceny and burglary charges, records showed. He had an active warrant out for his arrest on a domestic battery by strangulation charge, documents said.
Keys, faced murder, attempted murder and battery charges, records showed.
Both teenagers appeared in adult court Thursday for their initial appearances. They were expected to return to court Tuesday to be formally arraigned. Both declined the 8 News Now Investigators’ requests for interviews.
