Rasham Sylvester was returning from work when gunfire erupted outside his east Las Vegas home as his sons waited inside, police say.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Two teenage brothers were waiting for their father to walk through the front door after work when the sound they expected was replaced by gunfire outside their east Las Vegas home, according to police records. Investigators say their longtime neighbor, 25-year-old Alexian Rodriguez-Navar, fatally shot 42-year-old Rasham Sylvester on Sept. 22 after what police described as a weeks-long dispute between the men.

The sons, ages 14 and 17, had been playing video games when they saw Sylvester arrive home, according to an arrest report described by local news organizations. They expected him to enter the house moments later. Instead, they heard shots. When the boys looked outside, police said, they recognized a neighbor they knew as “Alex” holding a gun. One of the brothers told investigators that the armed man appeared to be moving toward their home. The teens ran to a bedroom in the rear of the house, locked the door and remained there until officers entered and found them uninjured.

The account from the brothers gives investigators a close view of the moments surrounding a killing that Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officials initially described as the violent end of an ongoing dispute between neighbors. Police received several reports of gunfire in the 5700 block of Pavot Court at about 5 p.m. Officers arrived to find Sylvester near the front of his home with multiple gunshot wounds. Police and medical personnel attempted to help him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Rodriguez-Navar was taken into custody nearby without a prolonged confrontation, according to police accounts.

Investigators said the family’s surveillance system recorded part of what happened. The video showed Sylvester walking along his driveway with a backpack and keys after arriving home, according to the arrest report. As the shooting began, he looked across the street and tried to reach the house. Police said he was hit by gunfire and collapsed near the front porch. The recording then showed a man investigators said appeared to be Rodriguez-Navar emerge from around a vehicle and fire additional shots at Sylvester. The description comes from police records; Rodriguez-Navar has not been convicted in the killing.

The shooting also left Sylvester’s wife trying to reach a home where she knew her children were still inside. She was at work when she learned her husband had been shot and called 911 while heading toward the neighborhood, according to recordings described in news reports. She told a dispatcher that her 17-year-old and 14-year-old sons were in the house and were frightened. Officers later entered because investigators saw signs that the residence itself had been struck by gunfire and wanted to determine whether anyone else had been hurt. They found the brothers safely barricaded inside.

A neighbor added another account of the shooting. According to police records cited by local outlets, a witness heard initial shots, looked outside and saw Rodriguez-Navar with a rifle as additional gunfire was directed toward Sylvester. Another portion of the police account said the armed man briefly moved away before returning toward the area where Sylvester had fallen. Investigators also reported finding rifle cartridge cases at the scene. Those witness and physical-evidence accounts became part of the case assembled after officers secured the street and began interviewing people who had been nearby.

Police have said the two men had been involved in some kind of disagreement during the weeks before Sylvester was killed, but the available arrest-report accounts do not provide a clear, verified explanation of what caused the dispute or why it escalated on Sept. 22. Sylvester’s wife told investigators there had been previous problems involving people across the street, according to published accounts of her 911 call. Authorities have not publicly established a specific motive. Homicide Lt. Robert Price said shortly after the shooting that detectives were looking into the history between the neighbors and whether police had previously been called to the area.

Rodriguez-Navar was booked on a homicide charge along with allegations that he discharged a firearm into an occupied structure or vehicle and possessed a firearm despite being legally prohibited from doing so. Published accounts have described the homicide allegation as either open murder or first-degree murder at different stages of the initial case reporting. The precise charging language can change as prosecutors review a case, and the allegation remains unproven unless established in court. After his arrest, Rodriguez-Navar invoked his right to an attorney and did not answer detectives’ questions, according to the arrest report.

The prohibited-person allegation is tied to Rodriguez-Navar’s earlier criminal record. Court records reviewed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal show he was arrested in 2016, when he was 15, after violence near the Hollywood Recreation Center that killed 15-year-old Angelo Barboza and injured four other people. Rodriguez-Navar originally faced numerous felony allegations. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit battery, battery and voluntary manslaughter with use of a deadly weapon. In December 2016, a judge sentenced him to two years of incarceration followed by five years of probation. Records cited by the Review-Journal say he received an honorable discharge from probation in 2020.

His contacts with the criminal justice system did not end there. Las Vegas Justice Court records reviewed by the Review-Journal show Rodriguez-Navar was arrested in September 2023 on suspicion of offenses that included possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, discharging a firearm and possessing a gun with an altered serial number. The Clark County district attorney’s office decided not to pursue charges from that arrest, according to the newspaper. He was charged the following month with being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm and with drug paraphernalia possession, although the Review-Journal said information on the resolution of that case was not available in the material it reviewed. In January 2024, he pleaded no contest to a drug-possession charge and received a time-served sentence.

Those earlier cases are relevant to the current firearm-possession allegation, but they do not establish guilt in Sylvester’s death. The evidence in the 2026 homicide case will have to be evaluated under the ordinary criminal-court process. Police have pointed to surveillance footage, witness statements, the accounts of Sylvester’s children and evidence collected around the home. Public reporting has not identified a statement from Rodriguez-Navar giving his version of the confrontation, and authorities have not publicly disclosed a detailed motive beyond the prior disagreement between the neighbors.

For Sylvester’s sons, the police investigation began inside the same home where they had been expecting an ordinary end to their father’s workday. Their statements, as summarized in the arrest report, trace a short sequence: they saw their father arrive, waited for him to come through the door, heard gunfire, saw a familiar neighbor with a weapon and locked themselves away until police reached them. Investigators have not publicly identified the boys, and news organizations have generally kept their names private because they are minors.

Rodriguez-Navar was ordered held without bail in the initial proceedings after his arrest. Early reports listed additional court appearances in late September, but publicly indexed reporting reviewed for this article did not establish a later disposition of the homicide case. As of the latest verified coverage, the killing remained an active criminal matter and the allegations against Rodriguez-Navar had not been adjudicated.

Author note: Last updated Nov. 9, 2026.