Las Vegas news briefs

Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1998 | 11:24 a.m.

Homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen said Heybrock died from a gunshot wound to the upper chest.

The motive for his killing is not known, Petersen.

Heybrock reportedly was last seen alive the evening of Aug. 9 getting into a 1970s model four door sedan, possibly a gray colored Chevrolet.

An artist's drawing of the car's driver is available at the homicide office.

Petersen said anyone with any information about the case should call 229-3521 or 385-5555.

MORE CHARGES -- A robbery suspect that was arrested Sunday in connection with a convenience store robbery has been charged in two more recent convenience store robberies.

Delbert Greene, 38, was arrested by Metro police shortly after he was accused of using a knife to rob a convenience store on North Lamb Boulevard Sunday. Further investigations have connected him to at least two more robberies over the past week, police said.

Greene now faces three counts of robbery with a deadly weapon and two counts of conspiracy to committ robbery.

REWARD RAISED -- The family of a Las Vegas man, who was shot and killed in a robbery attempt at his apartment in September, has raised the reward for information leading to the arrest of the two suspects to $16,000.

Ronnie Pradon Jr., 38, was shot in the chest on Sept. 29 when two men with guns entered his apartment in the 2600 block of Van Patten St. and demanded money from Pradon and his five friends that were in the apartment.

Pradon struggled with one of the gunmen before being shot and taken to University Medical Center where he died from his injuries, Metro police said.

The suspects are only described as dark-skinned men wearing dark clothing and bandanas over their faces.

Anyone with information on the crime is asked to call Metro homicide at 229-3521 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.

AUTOPSY -- Preliminary test results on a California journalist who died after attending the Comdex computer show in November have ruled out as a cause of death major organisms that cause food poisoning.

An autopsy showed that Gerald Hewett, 68, of Inyokern, a reviewer for the Vancouver, British Columbia, publication Computerist Magazine, died Nov. 23 of adult respiratory distress syndrome.

Laboratory results for salmonella and shigella, both common disease-causing organisms in food, were negative, said Clark County Health District epidemiologist Rose Bell on Monday.

Hewett's sudden death from a respiratory ailment led medical experts to suspect hantavirus, which is common in deer mice throughout the West. Bell said the Health District is still waiting for laboratory results from the University of Nevada School of Medicine in Reno testing for hantavirus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is testing Hewett's blood for thousands of other potential viruses.