A Las Vegas woman fatally shot her roommate at close range — and told cops they were simulating how they’d react if a “burglar came into the house,” police said.
Maya Santos, 20, was busted after initially lying to police about the Aug. 12 shooting that killed her 19-year-old roommate, David Tauiliili, three days after he was shot in the head at their apartment in southwest Las Vegas, according to an arrest report obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Santos first told detectives she was on her apartment patio with Tauiliili while watching YouTube videos about their two firearms when she pulled out the magazine from one of the weapons and slipped it into her purse, the report states.
Santos assumed the other gun was unloaded, but didn’t pull its “slide back to check for a cartridge in the chamber” before she waved it around and accidentally pulled the trigger, hitting Tauiliili in the head, according to the report.
Santos told investigators she bought the weapons illegally online after having a discussion with her roommates about home safety, police said.
But an autopsy conducted three days after Tauiliili died found that he had wounds indicative of Santos “pressing the gun” to the man’s head, the Review-Journal reports.
Santos then admitted a day later during a second interview with detectives that she had lied about the shooting, saying Tauiliili was actually struck as they were “acting out what they would do if a burglar came into the house,” according to the arrest report.
Santos claimed she shot Tauiliili while holding her arm and gun “straight out,” police said.
Tauiliili’s mother, Leilani Holmes, said her son was kept on life support for several days before being pronounced dead on Aug. 15. Holmes ultimately decided to donate his organs and saved the lives of five people in the process, she told KSNV.
“It’s just the worst pain ever,” she told the station. “The worst pain. It almost makes me sick inside, physically. I don’t know what to do.”
Holmes said Santos inexplicably “didn’t know there was still a bullet in the chamber” before the fatal shooting.
“I’m a very forgiving person but this one is going to be really hard for me, because he was so special to me,” Holmes said. “But, I know I can forgive. I can forgive with the grace of God.”
An online fundraiser set up on Tauiliili’s memory had exceeded $5,000 as of Monday.
Santos, who has been charged with murder, remains held on $20,000 bail at the Clark County Detention Center. She’s due to return to court on Sept. 27, online records show. It’s unclear if she’s hired an attorney.