Police believe shooting of teen, elderly man gang-related

Cathy Scott

Friday, April 10, 1998 | 10:25 a.m.

Investigators believe a drive-by shooting Wednesday night that critically injured an elderly man and seriously injured a teenager may have been gang-related.

Ebbster "Ebb" Bass, 71, was parked just before 7 p.m. at a curb on West Street near Carey Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard talking to a friend. He was about a quarter of a mile away from home, said Perry Bass, his son.

Also on the street was Joey Clark, 18, who had been working on his truck with his father, cousin and two friends, North Las Vegas Police Lt. Michael Blackwell said.

"I had just dropped the hood," Joey's father, George Clark, said. "I left to get a part for Joey's truck, and Joey walked across the street to talk to some girls."

It was approximately 6:50 p.m. As George Clark drove down the street, he heard gunfire.

"I thought, 'What's that all about?'"

He made a U-turn back to the truck, and found his son lying on the ground with two gunshots in his abdomen.

A gunman had driven by in a late model maroon four-door compact car and opened fire, hitting Bass in the chest and shoulder. Joey Clark was hit twice in the abdomen, Blackwell said. Bass was in critical condition at University Medical Center and Clark was in serious but stable condition, a nursing supervisor said.

By the time George Clark reached his son, the gunman had already fled, he said.

Bass tried to drive away from the gunfire, but only got about 20 feet when he passed out, Blackwell said.

Blackwell said one of Joey Clark's friends told detectives that he believes they were the intended targets.

"The way he describes the incident going down, it would indicate they were the target," he said. "Exactly why he would be the target is unknown.

"Where you have a carload of individuals drive by and start shooting at other individuals on the street is typical of gang-related stuff."

Two males were in the front seat and a female in the back seat, Blackwell said. Investigators "recovered 15 to 16 shell casings" from the street, he said. The caliber of the gun has not been released because the gunman was still at large today.

Joey Clark's mother, Rosie Clark, described the assailants "as cowardly guys."

"I think they're a bunch of cowards," she said while sitting in the waiting room of the trauma center. "If somebody had a problem with Joey or his friends, then they should have talked to them about it. (Instead) they shot and kept driving. Shoot and run, that's what they did."