LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A man who got into a fight with people who laughed at him Sunday night on an RTC bus was eventually shot to death, according to a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrest report.
Jettoni Zendel, 27, who was on a bus northbound on Paradise Road at Sahara Avenue, yelled to the bus driver that he pressed the button for the wrong bus stop Sunday night. “My bad,” he said.
A female passenger in the back of the bus yelled at Zendel and told him to walk, according to the report.
That made another man laugh — and he continued to laugh loudly, prompting Zendel to confront him.
“Don’t look at me,” said the man who was laughing. The man is identified in the police report as a suspect wearing yellow.
The two were talking to each other, along with another man who police later identified as John Kirby, 22.
The three men got off the bus to fight just after 10 p.m.
Jettoni put his backpack on the ground and threw a punch at Kirby, according to the arrest report.
Kirby responded by shooting Zendel one time in the chest with a handgun he had been holding, police said. He then fled the scene with the other man, headed south from the bus stop on Paradise under the Las Vegas Monorail.
Detectives used surveillance video from the RTC bus, along with video records from other bus routes, to identify Kirby as a suspect in the shooting. They were able to identify the bus pass he used and other routes Kirby had taken on Sunday.
Police compared surveillance video to Kirby’s social media videos, which showed him holding several handguns and displaying his tattoos.
At one point during bus ride down Maryland Parkway, Kirby removed a small handgun with an extended magazine from his waistband, set it on his lap and then waved it around, police said.
Toya Long, a friend of the victim, holds on to the memories of her friend Jettoni Zendel. She describes the Zendel, affectionately nicknamed Jett, as a beautiful soul. They met while working at Big Chicken, near Paradise and Harmon, where Jett was a bartender.
“Jett was just a bright light. He was funny, he was sweet,” Long said. “Everywhere he went, everybody considered him family.”
Long is so shocked by Zendel’s death.
“It’s so hard because who would do such a thing to such a nice guy? He doesn’t deserve this,” Long said. “I don’t really see Jett confronting anybody unless it’s self-defense.”
A 22-year-old man has been arrested in the Sunday night shooting that left a man dead after an argument on an RTC bus.
John Kirby is in custody at the Clark County Detention Center, facing a first-degree murder charge in connection with the death of Jettoni Zendel.