Investigators say the suspect described feeling hunted before opening fire on a car tied to no known threat.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A criminal complaint in the killings of a Las Vegas woman and toddler portrays a suspect who told police he believed he was being followed, then fired into a parked car that investigators say had no public link to any threat against him.
The complaint matters because it offers the first detailed explanation of why police say the shooting happened, while also underscoring how much is still unproven outside the suspect’s own words. Ziaire Ham, 22, was arrested in Utah on March 3, one day after Danaijha Robinson and Nhalani Hiner were shot in a blue Hyundai near Victoria Medici Street. Las Vegas police have said Ham will be extradited and charged with open murder with the use of a deadly weapon. The broader investigation remains open, including questions about whether anyone was actually following him and whether the gun believed to have been discarded in Utah has been fully tied to the case.
According to local reporting on the declaration of warrant, Ham had driven to Las Vegas from Phoenix in a black Mazda SUV that police say had been stolen earlier the same day. After arriving at his mother’s house, he allegedly got into an argument with his mother and her boyfriend and pointed a gun at the boyfriend before leaving. That family dispute did not end in reported injuries, but it set the stage for what came next. Ham later told detectives he believed people with gang affiliations were following him. He said he moved into a residential area because unfamiliar cars would be easier to spot there. In his telling, two vehicles stood out: a gray car and a blue car. He waited, watched and concluded that at least one of them did not belong.
Investigators’ reconstruction of the shooting was more concrete. Police said the attack happened around 9:08 p.m. on March 2 while LVMPD officers were conducting a traffic stop near Starr Avenue and Interstate 15. They heard gunfire, canvassed the area and found the blue Hyundai with bullet impacts in the 11000 block of Victoria Medici Street. Robinson, 20, and Nhalani, 1, were inside with gunshot wounds and later died at a hospital. Local television reports that cited sources and court records said the toddler’s mother and another woman had stepped away from the Hyundai to deal with the nearby stop, leaving Robinson and the child in the car. The complaint says Ham approached the vehicle after waiting about 20 minutes, saw one person in the driver’s seat and opened fire. Police said surveillance footage captured him firing into the car and then again near the front before he ran back to the SUV and fled.
The most notable language in the complaint comes from the interrogation that followed the Utah arrest. Ham allegedly told detectives, “That’s when I lit up the car,” then asked whether someone else had been in it. When officers told him a child was inside, local reports say, he responded in distress, saying he had killed a child and did not mean to kill anyone. Those remarks could become important pieces of evidence, but they do not resolve the case’s biggest factual gaps. Police have not publicly said they found evidence that Robinson, Nhalani or the others near the traffic stop were stalking Ham. They also have not publicly described any confrontation between Ham and the victims before the gunfire. As presented so far, the complaint lays out a claimed fear and a lethal response, but not independent proof that the fear was grounded in an actual pursuit.
The cross-state arrest unfolded with less ambiguity. Ogden police said officers got an automated plate-reader hit on the stolen SUV at about 3:58 p.m. on March 3. Officers attempted a stop, but the vehicle fled. It was later found in Roy, and Ham was arrested without further incident. Utah authorities booked him on local charges related to the stolen vehicle and pursuit. Ogden police then joined Las Vegas investigators in searching for a handgun believed to have been discarded somewhere between 30th Street and Wall Avenue in Ogden and 5800 South and 3100 West in Roy. They asked residents to check camera footage and report any firearm they found without touching it. The public search for the weapon added a second evidence trail to a case that had already spread from Arizona to Nevada and then to Utah in less than two days.
Meanwhile, the people killed have been identified more fully than the motive has. The Clark County coroner ruled the deaths of Robinson and Nhalani homicides. Local reporting said Robinson was the child’s aunt, citing a source close to the family, and memorial accounts described Robinson as affectionate and upbeat. Those details stand in contrast to the spare official record of the scene itself: a parked car, multiple bullet strikes and two victims found by officers who had already been nearby for an unrelated reason. That contrast may shape the case as it moves into court, where prosecutors are likely to rely on physical evidence and the suspect’s statements, while the defense may try to explain his mental state or perception of danger.
As of now, the public case file tells a story of claimed paranoia, quick violence and fast police work after the suspect crossed state lines. The next test of that narrative will come when Ham is returned to Nevada and the murder prosecution begins in open court.
Author note: Last updated April 7, 2026.