Riverhead High School grad, church pastor in Nevada, fatally shot outside his home Friday

A 1995 Riverhead High School graduate, who went on to become a pastor at a Las Vegas, Nevada church, was fatally shot Friday afternoon in the condominium complex where he lived with his wife and children.

Nick Davi, 46, pastor of operations at Grace Point Church in North Las Vegas, was shot during an altercation at the condominium complex, according to police.

Police arrested a 36-year-old woman, Joe Junio, at the scene of the crime. She is facing charges of open murder, attempted murder, discharge of a firearm, and two counts of child abuse or neglect. Junio was arraigned on all charges Tuesday in Clark County, Nevada Justice Court.

Details about what led to the shooting were not disclosed by police, who said a second person, a woman they did not identify, was also shot during the incident. Her njury that was not life-threatening.

During an emotional church service on Sunday, Ty Neal, another pastor at Grace Point, said the shooting suspect was a neighbor who had been “terrorizing” Davi and his family “to the point where they didn’t feel safe” in their own home and left for a few weeks. The family had gone back to retrieve some possessions, Neal said. There, they encountered the neighbor, who shot Davi in the presence of his wife Sarah and their two children, according to Neal. Davi’s wife was attempting to wrestle the gun away from the woman when she was shot as well, Neal said. 

Davi was taken to a hospital for emergency surgery but didn’t make it, Neal said. According to the county coroner, he died of a gunshot wound to his abdomen. Davi’s wife was treated and released, Neal said. 

During the Sunday service, which is posted on the church’s YouTube channel, Neal told the congregation it’s all right to question why such a thing could happen. It’s so hard to make sense of something like this, he said.

“This is evil. There is no other way to describe it,” he said. “This is a moment where we as a family, we do this thing called grief — and lament,” Neal said.

“You won’t get a better pastor, friend or human being than Nick Davi,” Neal said.

In social media posts, Davi’s friends and former classmates remembered him as a kind and generous person who had an easy smile and warm disposition.  James Scruggs, a classmate at Riverhead High School and a close friend of Davi’s through the years since, wrote that Davi was like a brother to him. “Only God knows the reason why you left this world way too soon. Rest in Heaven my friend,” Scruggs wrote.

At Riverhead High School, Davi was an athlete who played football and baseball for four years. He was a member of the National Honor Society, a member of the Rotary Interact Club and was on the float committee, according to the 1995 Blue Peconic yearbook.

Davi studied Marine Science and Biology at the University of Tampa in Florida and then worked at aquariums in Florida, Mississippi and Nevada before joining the Grace Point Church staff as a pastor.