LAS VEGAS — A Las Vegas homeowner was run over and killed on Tuesday morning after he stood in the road in front of his own vehicle as a stranger drove it out of his driveway, police say. By Wednesday, friends had named the victim as Robert Henze, 66, a man they called “Bob” and “Uncle Bob,” and friends told Las Vegas television stations they are planning a vigil for him while police continue to hunt for the driver.

Source: KTNV Las Vegas (via Las Vegas News)

The killing, in a residential neighbourhood of the east Las Vegas valley near Nellis Boulevard and Harmon Avenue, is being investigated as a homicide by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD). Police say the car was later found, but the person who drove it has not been located and no description of the driver has been released.

Source: Vegas Daily Wire, summarising KTNV, KSNV and the Las Vegas Review-Journal

What police say happened on Glenn Davis Drive

Las Vegas dispatch received a report of an auto-pedestrian collision at about 11:33 a.m. on Tuesday, November 10, in the east valley, according to police accounts carried by KSNV News 3. Officers responded to the 4600 block of Glenn Davis Drive, near Dennis Way, close to East Harmon Avenue and South Nellis Boulevard, and found the victim lying in the road.

LVMPD Lt. Casey Clarkson told reporters that an unidentified person saw an unoccupied vehicle left running in a driveway, got in and began driving it away. The homeowner saw what was happening and tried to stop the theft by standing in front of the vehicle in the roadway, Clarkson said. The driver then quickly accelerated, struck the homeowner and fled the area.

Officers immediately rendered aid until medical personnel arrived, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene, KSNV reported. Police said on Tuesday afternoon that the case was being investigated as a homicide, and later updates said the stolen vehicle had been found while the driver remained outstanding.

“Bob would have given the person a ride”

Melissa Cassidy, who said she had known Henze for about two decades through the local Burning Man community, told KTNV he was a constant, present friend who helped build art projects and bring other people's ideas to life. “When you called out for help, Bob was always there for you,” she said. “Bob would have given the person a ride. He didn't have to die over a car.”

Friends told FOX 5 Las Vegas they are planning a vigil for Henze, whom they called “Uncle Bob.” Police had not publicly released the victim's name in their Tuesday briefings; the identification as Robert Henze, 66, comes from his friends speaking to KSNV and other local stations, and formal identification is a matter for the Clark County Coroner's Office.

Background: the running-car risk

The case turns on a habit police across the United States warn about every winter and summer: leaving a vehicle running and unoccupied, even for a minute in your own driveway, makes it a target for opportunistic theft. Cassidy turned that warning to her neighbours as she grieved: “Secure your homes, don't leave your cars running. You think it won't happen to you, and then a tragedy can happen in the blink of an eye, so stay safe.”

Police have not said whether the theft was connected to any wider pattern of vehicle thefts in the east valley, and they have released no description of the driver. Investigators have also not announced any arrest, and no court proceedings exist yet in the case.

What happens next

The LVMPD Homicide Section's investigation is ongoing. Detectives are seeking the driver, who, if identified and arrested, would face investigation for a killing that police are treating as a homicide arising from a vehicle theft. The coroner's office is expected to formally identify the victim and determine the cause and manner of death. For the Punjabi and other immigrant families who live across the Las Vegas valley — many of them in the same kind of single-storey east-side neighbourhoods — the case is a stark reminder to lock vehicles, never leave them running unattended, and never step in front of a fleeing car: call police instead, as Cassidy and officers alike urged.