Tanisha Finley and Rodney Finley were the two people gunned down Sunday in front of the Bellagio fountains on the Las Vegas Strip, the coroner’s office revealed Tuesday.
Rodney Finley, 44, was a YouTube personality known as Finny Da Legend, and wife Tanisha Finley, a 43-year-old nicknamed Bubbly, was often his online sidekick, members of the online community told KSNV-TV. Rodney Finley died of multiple gunshot wounds, and Tanisha Finley was shot twice in the head, the Clark County Coroner’s Office told the Daily News, ruling both deaths as homicides.
The couple’s alleged assailant, 41-year-old Manuel Ruiz, and his wife broadcast from YouTube as Sin City Family. Finley and Ruiz each had a few thousand followers and had been feuding for about two years, online community members said, a claim corroborated by police.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers investigate the scene of a shooting on the Strip that left two dead Monday, June 9, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Madeline Carter/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
Finley was livestreaming from the Strip that night, and the shooting was partially captured on video. The footage apparently showed a man approaching the pair as he pulled a gun from his waistband, then firing as a bystander screamed, “Are you f–king kidding me?” before the stream cut off.
Ruiz turned himself in Monday and was charged with two counts of open murder with a deadly weapon. He’s being held at the Clark County Detention Center. He told detectives he had fired in self-defense because he thought he saw Finley reaching for a gun, according to an affidavit reviewed by KSNV. He then shot Tanisha Finley because he thought a “shiny black object in her hand” was also a gun. Police said there was no evidence either of them had a firearm.
Ruiz was denied bail at a court appearance on Tuesday and is due back in court Thursday.
One tourist, Edward, witnessed the shootings along with his wife as they watched the famed Bellagio fountains from their hotel balcony on a trip celebrating their anniversary, he told KTNV-TV.
“It was a horrifying situation,” Edward said. “Honestly, I don’t think it’s going to erase.”
With News Wire Services