Trust fund established for fallen security guard

Karen Zekan

Thursday, Oct. 16, 1997 | 10:08 a.m.

Las Vegas Business Bank has established a trust fund for the family of a security guard who was shot to death while patrolling its Maryland Parkway branch parking lot.

The bank set up a savings account trust fund in Paul McClure's name on Wednesday with a $1,000 deposit to assist the 59-year-old Henderson man's family.

Citizens may contribute by making donations to account number 1500481 at either of the bank's two branch offices, at Maryland Parkway and Katie Avenue and Jones Boulevard and Twain Avenue.

"It is a terrible tragedy to have something like this happen," said Al Alvarez, bank president.

"Our deepest sympathies go out to the family and friends of Mr. McClure. Unfortunately, it seems that no one is immune from such crimes in today's world, not even security or police officers as they work to protect us against such misfortune."

McClure was on duty at the Maryland branch office Tuesday night when, shortly before 8 p.m., a gunman fired multiple rounds at him as he sat behind the wheel of his white Ford Thunderbird.

Burns International Security, McClure's employer, received a call from the guard moments before his death in which he asked for help and for someone to call police.

Lt. Bill Foley of Borg-Warner Security, which owns Burns, responded to the call and found McClure dead in his car parked in the lot behind the bank.

Metro Police had few clues beyond several bullet casings found near the car.

Investigators have been interviewing employees of the bank and the security company, and the growing consensus is that the incident was a fluke.

"It seems to have been a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Thomas Hodson, executive vice president of Las Vegas Business Bank.

Hodson said the bank routinely brings in security guards to patrol its property overnight because of ongoing problems with transients camping out, urinating in the area and littering.

"Every two or three months, we ask a security guard to police our lot, depending upon how things are going, because the problem comes and goes," he said.

"The neighborhood we are in has undesirables. We get transients sleeping in our doorways. We usually have the guard work from 6 p.m. to midnight to steer the transients away from the property before they've bedded down for the night."

Describing the situation as "a docile process" involving typically passive vagrants, Hodson said there was never a need for the guard to be armed.

Burns security guards had been hired to patrol the Maryland Parkway branch's lot three times in the past year for varying periods until transients would eventually stay off the property. Hodson said prior to Tuesday's murder, security guards had never reported having any problems.

"(Tuesday) night was the first night of the normal sequence," Hodson said. "There was nothing abnormal about it, there had not been any stalking or any reason other than the homeless people."

Lacking eyewitnesses to the crime, police are still not sure what prompted the gunman to pull the trigger.

"This man probably saw something, heard something," Hodson said. "(Whoever) did it could've just been out to kill someone, we don't know. We've been in touch with the surviving spouse and expressed our condolences. We've tried to do the right thing (by starting a trust fund). This wasn't a crime directed at the bank, but we're people, too."

McClure is survived by his wife, Chaio Lien.

For more information about the trust fund, call the bank at 794-0070.