Juveniles rob second worker at Marble Manor

Cathy Scott

Friday, May 16, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

A construction worker renovating low-income housing units in West Las Vegas was shot in the back by a robber who wanted his tool belt.

Raul Rivera was in serious condition today at University Medical Center after undergoing surgery to remove a bullet that went through his back and lodged in his chest, Metro Police said.

About 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Rivera and another worker were inspecting a unit they had refurbished at the Marble Manor housing project near Washington Avenue and J Street. Two juveniles walked into an apartment the men were inspecting and demanded their tool belts, homicide Sgt. Bill Keeton said.

The workers, employed by Richardson Construction, "didn't comply and walked away," Keeton said. One of the juveniles shot Rivera as he walked away, Keeton said.

On Wednesday, two juveniles, thought to be the same suspects, robbed workers who were fixing up units in the same housing project but about two blocks away. The juveniles took the workers' money and wallets, Keeton said. Most of the units at Marble Manor are unoccupied, he said.

"The construction workers who are refurbishing the city housing projects have recently become major targets for juvenile robbers," he said. "What's interesting is you have a group of men rebuilding and making things new and better for the old neighborhood, yet they're the victims who are preyed upon."

Police don't have good descriptions of the youths.

Thursday's shooting occurred one block away from another part of Marble Manor where a 20-year-old known prostitute, Nadia Lynn Iverson, was found murdered the week before. Construction workers found Iverson's body May 8 inside a vacant Marble Manor unit at 1226 W. Reed Place. She died from a gunshot wound to the head.

"This neighborhood was a high-crime-rate neighborhood when occupied," Keeton said. "It appears when unoccupied, it's also a high-crime-rate neighborhood."

Built in the 1950s, Marble Manor is the oldest housing property owned by the Las Vegas Housing authority, which began rebuilding the project's 255 units in 1995 with a $3.7 million federal grant.