WCDA Sentencing Result

Road Rage Incident and Deadly Weapon Assault on Sparks Police Sergeant Results in 12 Year Prison Sentence

The Washoe County District Attorney’s Office has announced that Kelvin Bryan Torres, age 22, from Reno has been sentenced to 12 years in prison related to a serious road rage incident involving a firearm. Torres pled guilty to two counts of Assault with a Deadly Weapon on February 3, 2021 and was sentenced this month in Washoe County District Court to two consecutive 6 year sentences. Additionally, Torres was on probation for the gross misdemeanor crime of Challenge to Fight at the time of the assaults. The 12-year sentence was directed to run consecutive to a 364-day jail term on that prior conviction. Based on the sentences, Torres must serve a minimum of 3 years in prison after he completes his jail sentence before parole eligibility begins.      

The case against Torres began on October 18, 2020 when the Sparks Police Department (SPD) responded to a report of shots fired in a road rage incident. The victim in the case reported being shot at multiple times while in the area of McCarran Blvd. and El Rancho Blvd. An SPD Sergeant was the first to arrive in the area and he quickly located the defendant, who had apparently stopped to assist associates in a second vehicle that had crashed. When contacted, Torres was standing in front of the crashed vehicle along with another male. The SPD Sergeant saw that two people were inside the crashed vehicle, along with a car seat in the back. Based on the serious nature of the call, the SPD Sergeant ordered Torres and the other male to show their hands. Torres responded by producing a handgun from his waistband and pointed it directly at the Sergeant, who drew his firearm but did not shoot. The Sergeant, concerned that his only line of fire included the crashed vehicle’s occupants and the possibly occupied child’s car seat, chose not to fire at Torres. Instead, he ordered him to drop the weapon and waited for a muzzle flash in his direction. Torres slowly lowered his weapon as other officers began to arrive and eventually complied with commands to get on the ground where police took him into custody. Following Torres’ arrest, this office filed formal criminal charges against him and he ultimately pled guilty in the case.

At sentencing, Chief Deputy District Attorney Nickolas Graham argued for the maximum sentence under the law by stressing that road rage and firearms never mix and the defendant’s decision to shoot at his victim and pull a firearm on a police officer endangered innocent members of the community and the police force.