38-year-old Armando Rios Cordova (dob 8/27/86) has been convicted of two counts of Assault with the Use of a Deadly Weapon, after pointing a loaded BB gun at two different victims in a residential neighborhood near a school.
At the beginning of May of this year, Reno Police received two separate 9-1-1 calls for the area of Paradise Park and Bernice Matthews Elementary, on a report of a man pointing a handgun at people. The first victim, a 33-year-old woman, told police that she had been unloading her baby from the backseat of her car when Rios Cordova stopped walking, pointed a handgun at her, and mimicked it recoiling.
The second victim, a 29-year-old man, was taking his preschool age son to the nearby elementary school when he saw Rios Cordova walking down the street with a gun in hand. The victim said that the defendant mimicked a recoil from the gun twice, as if he were discharging the weapon at the man and his son. As police searched the area for Rios Cordova, several witnesses were able to identify him as being in the area, which allowed officers to locate him near High Desert Montessori School, at which point he was detained and subsequently arrested. During his arrest, law enforcement was able to determine that Rios Cordova had been carrying a loaded BB gun, which was concealed in his waistband by the time he connected with law enforcement.
At trial, both victims testified before Deputy District Attorney Hillary Bunker, where they explained how fearful they were for their safety and that of their children, how neither of them knew this individual prior to him pointing a gun at them, and how this incident led both to move out of the area.
Rios Cordova is set to be sentenced on February 12, 2025, before the Honorable Egan Walker.
A recording of the press release for media can be heard below. Mug shots can be found on the WCDA Facebook and Twitter accounts.
