‘A rock for a lot of people’: Las Vegas bartender mourned, found shot inside vehicle

As she sat at the Atomic Liquors outdoor patio Wednesday evening, Maria Ledesma fought back tears as she remembered her friend and colleague Hope Ritter.

“I met her working here and grew to see her like a little sister,” Ledesma said. “She was a great person.”

Ritter, 29, was found shot in the head inside a vehicle early Saturday in downtown Las Vegas, just a few blocks from Atomic Liquors, where she had worked as a bartender for about two years.

According to the Metropolitan Police Department, Ritter and another person were sitting in a vehicle in the 400 block of 11th Street, near Lewis Avenue, sometime around 2 a.m. on Saturday when two men walked past the vehicle.

Ritter was later found dead from multiple gunshot wounds to the head, the Clark County coroner’s office said.

She leaves behind a 10-year-old daughter and a long list of devastated friends within the downtown community, said Andrew Mendez, Atomic Liquors’ general manager.

“Everything Hope did was for her daughter,” Ledesma said. “She was a hard worker who just wanted to always become a better version of herself. She was just so sweet.”

Mendez said the past few days have been rough on everyone there.

‘Made people feel at home’

In the time Ritter had worked at the bar, Mendez said, she had built a roster of “regulars” who would often come in mostly to hang out with her.

“She was very friendly and warm,” Mendez said. “There were a lot of people who knew that she started at 5 p.m. every Friday and Saturday. They’d hang out at the bar for a few hours, hang out with Hope, and then go home.”

Lonnie O’Hara is a local tattoo artist who also bartends in Las Vegas part-time. He said he recently dated Ritter. Even though they broke up, they remained close friends, he said.

He said he’s still “in the dark” about exactly what happened on Saturday and that he’s heartbroken over Ritter’s death.

“She was a rock for a lot of people,” O’Hara said. “She was a very genuine soul; she had a chill approach, a unique laugh, and she just made people feel at home when they were around her.”

O’Hara said Ritter drove an Atomic Liquors “regular” home from the bar the night she was shot. He described Ritter as a good mother who loved tattoos and people and had moved to Las Vegas from California a few years ago to start a new chapter.

While Ritter worked full time at the bar, she also was going to school to become a barber. She was slated to graduate from The Original Barber School on South Pecos Road.

Martin Hernandez, a barber school classmate who graduated in December, told the Review-Journal that “this whole situation is insane” and that he was still trying to process Ritter’s death.

Fundraiser set for Sunday

On Sunday, Atomic Liquors, at 917 E. Fremont St., will host a memorial for Ritter beginning at 5 p.m. All profits from that day’s business will go to Ritter’s daughter, Mendez said. The bar also had a candlelight vigil over the weekend.

A GoFundMe page has been dedicated to Ritter’s daughter. As of Wednesday evening, nearly $16,000 had been raised.

For Ledesma, and all the others who are grieving, the support has been comforting, but the shock of Ritter’s violent death remained.

“It’s been hard to work here because I keep seeing her in every corner or at the bar,” Ledesma said. “I keep expecting her to be behind the bar. We just have to keep pushing ahead.”

As of Wednesday night, police hadn’t announced an arrest in the case.

“I’m not a hateful person, and Hope wasn’t a hateful person, but I would like to see whoever did this to pay for what they’ve done,” Ledesma said.

“If somebody knows something, let us know. What would make someone think they have the right to take her life away?”

Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.