Bellevue Police release names of Sonic shooting victims

BELLEVUE, Neb. (KLKN) —After a deadly shooting at the Sonic in Bellevue, police are releasing more information on what lead up tot he arrests and the victims that were shot.

Bellevue police first had contact with Roberto C. Silva, Jr. the man arrested for the alleged shooting at the Sonic in Bellevue on Wednesday, November 18th. A Sonic employee got a call that someone from out of state was experiencing identity theft on the Sonic app.

Police performed a traffic stop that night for Silva, Jr., who was believed to be the person who stole $57 worth of goods. Officers performed a traffic stop after locating Silva, Jr.’s vehicle and arrested him. He was charged with Identity Theft, less than $500. At the time of the arrest, officers also located three guns in Silva, Jr.’s car. BPD says Silva does have a permit to carry in Nebraska. Upon his arrests that night, officers took all three firearms into police custody and never released them to Silva.

On Saturday, at 9:23 p.m. dispatch got a call about a U-Haul truck on fire in the Sonic parking lot with a possible bomb in it. Just one minute later, the call changed after a call to dispatch said shots had been fired.

At 9:31 p.m. officers had located the alleged suspect, 23-year-old Roberto C. Silva, Jr., and then arrested him without any altercations.

While teams were locating the suspect, another team observed victims inside the Sonic that needed immediate care. Police pulled three victims from the restaurant and began to perform life-saving measures on them, two of them did not survive. Police then located another victim, it’s unclear if this person was inside the restaurant or not. Two victims were taken to UNMC for care, two victims were pronounced deceased at the scene and one victim, who had minor injuries, refused care. All five victims were employees of Sonic.

Police said Nathan Pastrana, 22, and Ryan Helbert, 28, both died at the scene.

BPD said, Kenneth Gerner, 25, and Zoey Reece Atalig Lujan, 18, were both injured and transported to the hospital. There has not been an update on their condition at this time.

The U-Haul truck that was at the scene, is still under investigation but police believe the truck was brought to the Sonic by Silva, Jr.

Officers and detectives located four firearms at the scene on Saturday night but no firearms were located on the suspect at the time of the arrest.