Grover Kriss Flores

On the afternoon of January 20, 2024, a dispute that began on social media ended in gunfire at a Casey's gas station in Omaha, Nebraska, taking the life of Grover Kriss Flores, a 30-year-old Hispanic man. The shooting, which occurred around 2:30 p.m. at 72nd and Grover streets, was the city’s first homicide of the year. Flores was sitting in a car with two friends, 23-year-old Angel Moran and 20-year-old Samantha Fox, when a man approached their vehicle and opened fire.

When police and paramedics arrived, they found all three occupants had been shot. Flores was in critical condition, and first responders performed CPR before rushing him to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Moran and Fox were also transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening wounds. Witnesses told investigators that the shooter fled the scene on foot.

The Omaha Police Department investigation quickly led to the arrest of a 16-year-old, Delvin Amaya. His father, 46-year-old Mario Amaya-Castillo, was also taken into custody and charged with being an accessory to a felony and tampering with physical evidence. Prosecutors alleged that Amaya-Castillo helped hide his son’s clothing after the shooting.

Delvin Amaya was charged as an adult with first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree assault, and three counts of using a weapon to commit a felony. Court proceedings revealed that the shooting was the result of a social media argument that was supposed to have been settled with a fistfight. Instead, Amaya fired more than ten rounds into the car occupied by Flores and his friends.

Amaya, who had turned 17, later entered a plea of no contest to amended charges of second-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony. In exchange for his plea, the other charges were dismissed. On November 5, 2024, a judge sentenced Delvin Amaya to 50 to 60 years in prison for the murder and a consecutive term of 30 to 40 years for the weapons charge. His conviction and sentencing brought the case to a close in November 2024.