Tuesday, April 23, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Two Las Vegas men were in critical condition today after being shot in the head in separate incidents.
Torie Williams, 20, was shot at 1 p.m. Monday by unknown assailants as he stood in the carport of his West Las Vegas home, Metro Police and witnesses said.
A witness told police he was in front of Williams' house at 1201 Doolittle Ave., near Lake Mead and Martin Luther King boulevards, when two men walked up. The four argued, and one of the men fired four rounds from a .357-caliber Magnum.
Williams' friend ran down the street and did not get hit, a neighbor said.
Williams ran inside the house, where he was shot once in the head.
A stray bullet blew out a rear tire of an Oldsmobile sedan parked on the lawn and another bullet left a hole in the side of the car. The gunmen were last seen running toward nearby Doolittle Park, police said.
Homicide Lt. Larry Spinosa said there was no known motive for the shooting.
Joann Clay, a family friend, said, "Torie's not a gangbanger or anything like that. He works and has a job."
Williams' cousin, Eisha Porter, agreed the shooting wasn't gang-related, because "my cousin's not a gang member."
Next-door neighbor Burla Jackson was taking a nap when she thought she heard knocks on her door. It turned out to be gunfire, she said.
"The shots woke me up," she said. "Boom, boom, boom. That's all I heard."
She went outside to see what was going on. She started to go next door when a neighbor approached her.
"He told me, 'Don't go over there. Don't go over there and look.' So I stayed in my front yard."
The second shooting occurred about 2:45 p.m. at 2709 Searles Ave. in the Weeks Plaza housing project just east of Eastern Avenue and across the street from Bracken Elementary School.
John Wilson, 25, was shot in the head and back when his fiancee's brother shot him three times with a shotgun, police said.
The couple were arguing and the brother, Rodell Dew, 18, was protecting his sister from being hit by her boyfriend, Lt. Cliff Davis said the girlfriend told officers.
Carey Anderson, a tenant and friend of Wilson, said he saw his friend stumble out of the apartment and onto a sidewalk.
"He was staggering, then he dropped," Anderson said.
Anderson and other tenants ran over to help Wilson. Anderson said he told the others not to move him.
"I saw a big gash in his head," he said. "I held a newspaper over his forehead to keep the sun out of his eyes until the paramedics arrived."
Dew left the area on foot, Davis said. Police arrested him at 11 p.m. at Weeks Plaza and booked him into the Clark County Detention Center on an attempted murder charge.
Tammy Zumaye, who lives in a house nearby, said: "It sounded like fireworks. It's ridiculous. Right in front of the school, too."
Immediately after the shooting, police and school officials rounded up students, brought them indoors and put the school "in lock-down," said Clark County School District Police Officer Ken Young.
The school remained secured for about 30 minutes until Metro released the students at 3:15 p.m.
"We feel confident the students can make it to their destinations safely," Young said as he told lingering students to "go on home."
Police were looking today for two men involved in the first shooting. One was described as a black man with a long ponytail who was wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans. The second man was described as black and wearing a gray golf shirt, gray and white pants and a gray baseball cap.
Spinosa asked that anyone with information call homicide detectives at 229-3521 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.
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