By: Las Vegas Now Staff
The search for the suspect who shot and killed a local woman is over. 20-year-old Calvin Kirklin has been arrested for killing 39-year-old Blanca Gonzalez at a stop light last Friday night.
Gonzalez and her two kids were stopped at the light at Nellis and Charleston when a person in the car next to them fired a shot, changing their lives forever.
Kirklin was arrested Monday after a local resident, who had seen the vehicle on the news, noticed the golden Buick Regal and called police.
Read the arrest report for Calvin Kirklin
Police say Kirklin was behind the wheel when he fired off the shot into Gonzalez’s car, hitting her in the head. The victim’s 15-year-old son says this arrest doesn’t bring back his mom.
“Smiling all of the time — fighting. All she wanted was to fight for me and my little sister, that’s all she wanted,” said Cristian Basurto.
Police say they still have no motive for this crime, but in the arrest report, Kirklin told police he was heavily intoxicated the night of the shooting. He says he was handling the gun, when it accidentally went off.
But police say he knew he shot someone and still drove off. The victim’s son says he’s now trying to be strong for the entire family.
“It’s been hard on me, but I don’t want her to look down on me and see me suffering. I want her to be happy of what — she’s taken care of me. One thing I inherited from her was her personality and I have to be strong and work hard for my family because that’s what she would have wanted,” said Basurto.
Cristian says he and his family were planning to move back to Mexico next year. His mom was trying to help him fulfill is dream of being a professional soccer player.
There were several other people in the car when the gun was fired. They have not been arrested. Police say they are being treated as witnesses.
Kirklin has been charged with murder with a deadly weapon, discharging a firearm from a vehicle and child endangerment. Police say the suspect also had his one year old child in his car at the time of the shooting as well as three other adults.
Email your comments to Reporter Melissa Duran
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I think his story is load of bull and should punished to the full extent of the law in addition those idiots should face charges as well. They devasted an innocent family for no reason. Just no good punks!!!!!
Comment by Dawn Blake — April 1, 2008 @ 4:58 pm
No trial, No jury.
Punishment = execute Calvin within a week.
Comment by Jose P — April 1, 2008 @ 10:34 pm
The police should shoot him in the head and say it was an accident
Comment by NIcole — April 2, 2008 @ 11:08 am
Here we go again. Another bastard who will plead “Not Guilty”, who will get a shameless lawyer to represent him just so he can win points claiming that his client didn’t know what he was doing because his judgement was impaired by alcohol or some other ridiculous argument. I bet that the bastard’s family will try everything they can to keep him out of jail. They are low class too and all of them should be stood up against a wall and shot down like pigs. What has this country come too? Rotten lawyers, rampant criminals and a screwed up un-justice system……..I quit!!
Comment by William — April 3, 2008 @ 11:56 pm
WAKE UP PEOPLE………
Just like the people in the case of the high school student in Summerlin who was shot walking home from school, ALL parties in Kirklins car should be arrested as well, and not treated as witnesses. After all they were there they knew he fired the gun, they all knew he shot someone, and yet they all fled the scene. And the Mother of the baby who was also in the car should be charged as well for child endagerment as she allowed Kirklin to drive the car intoxicated with their baby in the car.
Come on METRO serve the arrest warrents………
Comment by Chris — April 4, 2008 @ 7:51 am
Christian, and your sister, our hearts go out to you both, we have been following the story all along…God, will be watching out for the both of you and hope you get your dream…..
Comment by Bruce & Ellen — April 4, 2008 @ 11:19 am
I think they should change the name from Las Vegas to “WEST WORLD”
Comment by Bruce & Ellen — April 4, 2008 @ 11:21 am
Prosecute the “witnesses” in the car. They ran with him. They did not turn him in.
Comment by Angie Martinez — April 4, 2008 @ 1:44 pm
Hey Calvin and Family,
Tragedy YES, Accident NO!
If it was truly an accident, why didn’t you hang around to administer first aid?
Because, you were trying TO GET AWAY:
1. from the scene
2. with murder
A COMMON misconception (which lawyers FEED into) is that guns JUST GO OFF. Another misconception is the belief that triggers require enormous pressure to actually shoot. Guns ONLY go off when the trigger is squeezed. “Trigger Pulls” can vary in different weapons but, ALL do NOT require much pressure. So Calvin, you ask “Why did the gun go off. It didn’t go off a second ago when I was doing that. Why’d it go off this time?”
Simple, Because this time YOU had YOUR FINGER on the trigger and YOU exercised muscles in YOUR (inebriated) HAND which caused the firearm to discharge thus resulting in the murder of an innocent Mother in front of her children. It was ONLY through YOUR CARELESS ACTIONS that a woman lost her life. Granted, you may not have PLANNED her murder (SO drop the premeditation) but, YOU certainly are responsible for her murder. The gun is NOT at fault for YOUR ACTIONS. You, CALVIN, need to be held accountable for YOUR ACTIONS! Quit CRYING accident as if YOU are the victim! I don’t care if your Momma cries that you aren’t a gang banger. Even if (on the REMOTE CHANCE) you WERE an Eagle Scout - NOW, YOU are NOTHING but a MURDERER.
A murderer who (cowardly) FLED the scene of a CRIME in an effort “To Get Away”.
On April 30 you will, once again, TRY TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER!
Comment by Nancy M — April 17, 2008 @ 7:19 am
I LOVE Nicole’s response!!
I keep telling my friends about this blog site and Nicole’s suggestion. They complain that they (my friends) can not find this site to leave a response. Why is this blog NOT listed under News Talk OR Homicide Report? You really have to hunt this one down by going through the actual story. With the trial date set for the end of this month, I would think this story would warrant more attention in an easier access category - such as News Talk or Homicide Report. Any way to transfer this to an easier to access area of lasvegasnow.com?
Comment by Curious — April 18, 2008 @ 11:59 am
First my heart goes oou to them kids. no kid should see a parent get murdered infront of them. second bull shit this was meant to be done. please your drunk or high and you have a gun loaded with you come on take it from me a ex-gang memebr it was meant to be and they all of them in that car should go to jail. that is some shit that there going to no charge them with thekilling and have them be witnesses. it’s stupid. they was all there and none of them came forward to say anything about what happened until the cops arrested this low life
Comment by Roxeanne — April 23, 2008 @ 12:39 am
This is a “terrible” tragedy… No doubt about it. My heart goes out to the family of the mother(And I do truly mean that). However, I think a person who was intentionally going to shot someone he did not know for no apparent reason,… would likely roll down his own window prior to shooting a bullet through it.. Hello, does that make sense to anyone. I know Jabriel lost his mother at a young age to cancer. I know that he was very upset with what happened but I’m not sure if anyone wouldn’t panic a shot came out of the front seat of a car they were in and they finally realized what happened(He was in the back seat). (Anyone who has ever been involved in something like this can “say” exactly what you would do… But lets not bs on this. None of us knows till were put in a specific situation.) All of you that want to judge the back seat passenger, go ahead and throw the first stone. This kid also had to fear for his life (come on, the only latino kid in the car). There is nothing that could upset Gabe worse than the death of someones mother, based on his past experience. He did not bring the gun, own the gun, shot the gun, etc. Simply sat in the back seat of a car with a person who acted completely irresponsibly, however I hate to say it, I do not think it was intentional. However, my heart does break for the family of the mother. (Calvin, not so much, even though I don’t think it was intentional, it was negligent). Go ahead and cast a stone at me now, since all of you judgers know what happened and is best for everyone.
Comment by Jose — May 7, 2008 @ 6:03 pm
I’m wondering if the shooter is still in jail, or just what is happening with this case. I also wonder if the other people in the shooter’s car will at least be punished for not coming forward and owning up to this terrible (not intentional?) action, you know, the one saying, “You shot her…go go go!” I think the whole thing was terrible for everyone involved, but I knew the mother that died, and she and her family never did anything to deserve this. As far as I know, there’s not been any apology or any kind of remorse, besides being sorry he was caught. Bless the people who alerted the police. Thank you!
Comment by kathy — June 28, 2008 @ 8:35 pm