It started as a birthday night out. It ended with a man dead on the pavement and his girlfriend staring at flashes in her rearview mirror, realizing she had just witnessed her boyfriend’s final moments.
Anthony Anderson, 37, was pronounced dead at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas in the early hours of Monday morning. He had spent the night celebrating his own birthday at the Dive Bar — with his girlfriend and his roommate, 26-year-old Jordan Garcia, whom the couple had picked up from work earlier that evening.
By all accounts, the night started warmly. Anderson’s girlfriend told police the two men had “expressed affection for one another” throughout the night, calling each other “brothers.” Garcia had a few drinks. Anderson, it was noted, drank heavily.
When it came time to leave around 4 a.m., things changed fast.
Anderson insisted on driving despite being heavily intoxicated. Garcia pushed back, trying to convince his friend to let the girlfriend — who had agreed to be the designated driver — take the wheel. The disagreement turned into an argument. The argument turned into a fight.
Anderson’s girlfriend had already gotten into the driver’s seat when she looked out the window and saw the two men wrestling on the ground. She stepped out of the car to break them up — and according to police, she succeeded. A bystander outside the bar was filming the entire confrontation.
Then she turned back toward the car.
“She saw flashes in her mirror, which she assumed were from a gun.” The next image she saw was Anderson collapsed on the ground.
A bar employee rushed outside to help. According to police, Garcia approached the employee and said something to the effect of: “I shot him and he tried to fight me.”
Here’s the detail that makes this case even more chilling: the gun used in the shooting belonged to Anderson himself. The two roommates shared the weapon — and Anderson had been carrying it that night only because Garcia was at work when they left.
Garcia did not speak to investigators at the scene. He was charged with open murder and is currently being held at the Clark County Department of Corrections. His next court date is scheduled for June 9.
What happens next: With a bystander’s video of the fight, eyewitness testimony from Anderson’s girlfriend, and Garcia’s own alleged statement to a bar employee, prosecutors are walking into court with a near-complete picture of what happened outside the Dive Bar that night.
Anthony Anderson made it to his 37th birthday. He never made it home.
