Two teenage boys have been arrested and charged in connection with the horrific vehicular murder of a cyclist in Las Vegas. Jesus Ayala, 17, and Jzamir Keys, 16, will be tried as adults in the death of retired police chief Andreas Probst, 64.
Video of the slaying was posted to social media and went viral earlier this month showing the callous teens driving a stolen car on August 14 with Ayala behind the wheel and Keys filming from the passenger seat.
In the footage, Probst can be seen ahead of the car, cycling on the side of the road. Keys is heard encouraging Ayala to “hit his ass,” at which point the car speeds towards Probst and deliberately crashes into him.
Probst’s body smashes into the windshield and tumbles over the top of the car as the two boys laugh and joke. The footage ends with the camera panning to see Probst lying on the side of the road, motionless as they speed away.
Ayala was arrested that same day, while Keys was located and taken into custody by police this week after the footage went viral.
On Wednesday morning, the pair appeared in separate hearings in Family Court, and were subsequently transferred to the Clark County Detention Centre. The two have been charged with murder with a deadly weapon, battery, and attempted murder in Las Vegas Justice Court and will be tried as adults.
According to police, the two teens were responsible for at least three other hit-and-run incidents around the same time, including the intentional striking of a 72-year-old man riding a bike. Thankfully, the elderly man survived his encounter with Ayala and Keys.
Local reporting by the Las Vegas Review-Journal reveals that one of Ayala’s female relatives had to use the assistance of a translator in order to understand what was happening in court during the hearing.
While the murder of Probst occurred in August, the video taken by Keys exploded on social media last week, racking up millions of views across the accounts that shared the footage. Some users on X, formerly Twitter, suggested that the story hadn’t achieved widespread corporate media coverage due to the races of the individuals involved.
Nick Farese, the Deputy Police Chief of Las Vegas Metropolitan PD, said that the “intentional” hit and run incident that killed Probst was a “cowardly act that in [his] 22 years of law enforcement left [him] personally appalled.”
At a press conference on Tuesday, Taylor Probst, the victim’s daughter, said that her family was “devastated” by his “senseless murder,” and that his life was “robbed by two individuals who did not believe that the lives of others matter.”
