NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — On March 2, 2025, North Las Vegas police arrested 28-year-old Joseph De Luna as the suspect in the deadly shooting of 21-year-old Jaime Zamora on the I-15 earlier this month.
According to the arrest report, De Luna called police after Zamora was shot inside a truck on the side of the freeway. The report states that "based on admissions made during the 911 call," De Luna was taken into custody without incident by responding state troopers.
Crime
Suspect arrested following deadly shooting on I-15 near Craig Road
The freeway was shutdown for several hours as authorities from the North Las Vegas Police Department arrived to take over the investigation.
The arrest report states De Luna, Zamora and several friends were drinking and smoking marijuana on the night prior to the shooting. It also states De Luna was snorting cocaine, openly carried a gun and was showing paranoid behavior, but no significant conflicts were noticed between him and Zamora. Later on, De Luna and Zamora decided to go driving around when their friends went to sleep.
Investigators said De Luna told them Zamora was threatening him and his family if he did not "work" for him — believing that Zamora wanted De Luna to sell drugs — and, fearing for his safety, De Luna put the truck in park from the passenger seat while it was driving, halting the vehicle to the side of the freeway.
De Luna said Zamora said something to the effect of "What did you do that for? Now I'm going to hurt you for real," and then shifted his body towards the suspect. De Luna said he became concerned Zamora had a gun despite never seeing one. Police said this is when Zamora was shot multiple times, leading to his death.
De Luna had no visible injuries, according to investigators, and when asked why he didn't just exit the truck when it was parked, he said "because he threatened me." According to the report, De Luna said Zamora never attempted to physically harm him, use a weapon against him or batter him in any way. After the shooting, De Luna then made calls to his girlfriend and mother before calling the police.
Listen to the 911 call after the shooting
Investigators conducted interviews with several of the people at the house prior to the shooting. Several of them said De Luna was acting paranoid and was accusatory that someone was trying to start an intimate relationship with his ex-girlfriend, but it was not violent or confrontational.
Despite saying he was threatened, investigators said De Luna could not clearly articulate any specific threat and was unable to describe any event that "placed him in imminent fear for his life."
De Luna was booked into the North Las Vegas Community Correctional Center on an Open Murder with a Deadly Weapon charge. His bail has been set at $300,000.
