A teenager who sat beside his friend in a car and encouraged him to hit a retired police officer riding his bike through Las Vegas has been arrested.
He was picked up on Tuesday, Sept. 19, according to officials.
The minor was taken into custody in Clark County. His identity has yet to be revealed. According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, he is also a minor just like the teen driver of the car who is already in police custody.
Both are facing murder charges in the disturbing hit-and-run death of 64-year-old Andreas Probst last month, Las Vegas officials said at a press conference.
“It’s a complete lack of conscience on a part of it and the worst part about it in the video is you hear that everything was intentional,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Detective Lieutenant Jason Johansen said.
The DAs said on Tuesday the 2 males are expected to be tried as adults.
The teen passenger filmed the gut-wrenching video showing that Probst was deliberately struck and left for dead while he was on his morning bike ride around 6 a.m. on Aug. 14.
The shocking video went viral on Twitter on September 16 and sparked outrage.
It was also revealed that a student at a local school showed the shocking video to an officer on campus, which was how the department first learned of it.
Andreas Probst’s daughter, Taylor, spoke about the loss of her father at the press conference on September 19. She said her family is “devastated by the senseless murder” that took place last month. She added that the death is a direct result of “society’s decayed family values” and the effects of social media.
The video of the hit-and-run graphically depicts the murder of 64-year-old Probst, who was simply riding his bicycle down the street.
The two teens, who were in a stolen car, saw him and deliberately decided to hit him for fun.
The teens are heard talking about hitting him just before they did.
The driver can be heard asking his laughing friend “You ready?” as he speeds up directly behind the retired cop.
“Yeah yeah yeah yeah. Hit his ass,” the passenger says laughing before the driver plowed into the retiree.
Probst was thrown onto the windshield, sending shards of glass through the car, and over the car before crashing onto the side of the road.
“Damn that ni**a got knocked out!” the passenger says as the driver can be heard stepping on the gas.
Probst was left for dead on the road. The two teenagers in the car can be heard laughing as they drive away.
The killing was the most severe in a string of crimes the pair allegedly carried out that same morning, authorities said.
The teen driver and passenger allegedly struck another person, a 72-year-old man around 5:30 a.m. that morning, leaving him with non-life-threatening injuries.
They were also accused of intentionally ramming into a second car travelling nearby before setting their sights on Probst.
Police said the teens stole at least four cars to carry out the violent spree.
The 17-year-old who plowed into Probst was arrested the same day as Probst’s death on suspicion of hit and run.
Authorities announced the upgraded murder charge after video of the incident surfaced. Prosecutors said both teens will be tried as adults.
It took police five weeks to track down the passenger, who was wearing a mask in surveillance footage obtained by investigators.
He was ultimately caught in part due to the damning video, which was alerted to police by a school resource officer that had been given the footage by a student.
It remains to be seen if the passenger will face similar charges as the driver, who is being prosecuted for hit-and-run as well as murder.
Probst’s family said Tuesday, Sept. 19, that they believe the senseless killing was caused by the effect “social media has on our youth”.
“Andy’s life was robbed by two individuals who did not believe that the lives of others matter,” his daughter Taylor said, calling her father a “man of honour and integrity.”
“He was a little league dad, an honorary member of Girl Scouts … and he was always there for the various activities we’d get into as a family. His colleagues remember him as a real-life Peewee Herman. He was a jokester, a prankster and always had a way to make you laugh.”
Watch the shocking video of the hit-and-run here.
