Police say the suspect fled Nevada in a stolen SUV after firing nine shots into a parked car.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A 22-year-old man arrested in Utah is expected to be returned to Las Vegas after police said he shot into a parked car on March 2, killing 20-year-old Danaijha Robinson and 1-year-old Nhalani Hiner in a south valley neighborhood.

The case moved quickly from a late-night double homicide to a multistate arrest, but investigators say many parts of the shooting are still being pieced together. Las Vegas police have identified Ziaire Ham as the suspect and said he will face open murder charges with a deadly weapon after extradition. Court records described a confession and a claim that he thought the car did not belong in the area. The deaths of Robinson and Nhalani were ruled homicides, and the shooting drew added attention because officers were already nearby on an unrelated traffic stop when gunfire broke out.

Police said the case began at about 9:08 p.m. on March 2, when Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers were conducting a traffic stop near Starr Avenue and Interstate 15 and heard gunshots close by. Officers canvassed the area and found a car with multiple bullet strikes in the 11000 block of Victoria Medici Street. Robinson and Nhalani were inside with gunshot wounds. Medical crews took them to a hospital, where both were pronounced dead. In later reporting based on a criminal complaint, investigators said Ham had come to Las Vegas from Arizona and told detectives he had argued with relatives before leaving the house with a gun. After his arrest, police said, he asked to speak with Las Vegas detectives and then described approaching the car and opening fire.

The complaint, as described by local media, says Ham told detectives he believed people were following him after he left his family’s home. He said he felt isolated, believed there was a bounty on his head and saw two cars near him in a residential area. One of them, a blue Hyundai, had been parked near a separate police stop. According to the complaint, Ham said he waited, walked up to the vehicle and fired when the person inside did not get out. Investigators said surveillance video captured the shooting and showed additional gunfire at the front of the car before the gunman fled. The same court records say Ham later became distraught when detectives told him a child had been inside. Authorities have not said they found any evidence that Robinson, Nhalani or the other people in the area were targeting him.

The setting helped explain why officers reached the scene so quickly. Local television reports said Robinson, the toddler, the child’s mother and another woman had been traveling in a small group of vehicles before one car was pulled over nearby. Those reports said Robinson and Nhalani remained in the blue Hyundai while the child’s mother and another woman walked toward the traffic stop. Minutes later, gunfire rang out. The Clark County coroner later identified the dead as Robinson, 20, and Nhalani, 1, and ruled both deaths homicides. One station reported that a source close to the family said Robinson was the toddler’s aunt. Family tributes described Robinson as warm and funny, while fundraising pages and later coverage showed relatives mourning both victims at once as the case moved from a neighborhood crime scene into a broader homicide investigation.

The arrest came the next day in northern Utah. Ogden police said an automated license plate reader flagged a stolen vehicle wanted by Las Vegas police at about 3:58 p.m. on March 3. Officers tried to stop it, but the SUV fled. Police later found the vehicle in Roy, and Ham was taken into custody without further incident after a short search. Utah authorities booked him on local charges including receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle, failure to respond to an officer’s signal to stop and reckless driving. Las Vegas police later announced that Ham had been identified as the suspect in the killings and would be extradited to Nevada to face open murder charges with the use of a deadly weapon. Officials also said detectives were working to recover a handgun believed to have been discarded along the route in Utah.

The investigation has unfolded across ordinary places: a suburban street, a freeway-side traffic stop and a residential stretch in Utah where officers and K-9 teams searched for a weapon. Neighbors in Las Vegas told local outlets they heard a burst of shots, then saw police rushing from the nearby stop toward Victoria Medici Street. In Utah, police released images of the suspect and the black SUV with Arizona plates and asked residents to review home surveillance footage. Those details gave the case a wider public footprint than many shootings, with two departments in different states asking for help within days of the killings. Still, the central account remains the one investigators say Ham gave them: he singled out a car he believed did not belong there, walked up to it and fired.

Ham remained in the Weber County Jail as Las Vegas prepared the extradition process. The next major step is his return to Nevada for the filing and litigation of the murder case.

Author note: Last updated April 7, 2026.