Far from the lights of the Vegas strip, on November 14, 2012, Robert Bessey set out for his early morning shift at his construction job out in the Mojave Desert. It was about 4:00 AM when a moving vehicle pulled up next to him on a desolate highway and, out of nowhere, Bessey feels a “pop” and realizes he’s bleeding from his neck. Someone fired a shot at him through his passenger window.
Somehow, Bessey has the ability to pull his car off the highway to call for help. In his 911 call to dispatchers, Bessey says, “I don’t know how they didn’t kill me.”
He’s rushed to the ER and as the bullet was being surgically removed from his skull, Las Vegas detectives are already on scene at the hospital, holding their breath while waiting to speak to him.
As they interview Bessey from his hospital bed, the victim doesn’t seem to recall much about the incident. He tells detectives he didn’t see anyone, and didn’t recognize anything unusual. But then, the victim has an “Ah-ha!” moment. He suddenly remembers that the type of car that drove up next to his vehicle was a gold SUV.
Then, just 24 hours after the attempted murder, Las Vegas PD get their first big break. Local news reports of the drive-by shootings that were blanketing the Vegas area and the media attention drew in a tip. A truck driver reported seeing two suspicious men at a Chevron Station on the morning of the shooting — just ten miles away from the crime scene. And what were they driving?
A gold SUV.
Police waste no time in getting to the Chevron Station. They know the surveillance footage could self-erase at any time. But luckily, the Las Vegas detectives get there quickly enough to capture footage of a gold SUV with two men in it. The footage shows the men pulling up to the station, actually going into the Chevron convenience store, and then get back into the car.
But who were these two men? And why would they want Robert Bessey dead? Why was this man the victim of a mysterious drive-by shooting? Did he have enemies? Was he a part of the underworld in Sin City? Or did someone close to him mastermind a sinister murder plot?