Las Vegas news briefs

Friday, July 31, 1998 | 11:02 a.m.

FATAL SHOOTING -- A shooting Thursday morning left one man dead and two injured, one of them critically, according to Metro Police Lt. Wayne Petersen. Hours later police returned to the same address, a private residence in the 2300 block of La Puente Street, after a pipe bomb was found at the location. Petersen said a 25-year-old man died at the scene from a gunshot wound in the chest at around 10 a.m. While investigators were at the scene, according to Petersen, they learned two other gunshot victims from the same location were at Lake Mead Hospital. Randy Wood, 28, was treated and released with a gunshot wound in his shoulder, Petersen said, and Paul Holmes, 35, was transferred to University Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition. Petersen said the shootings are under investigation but they may have been sparked by a dispute over a car title.

FUGITIVE FOUND -- A 50-year-old fugitive who walked away from the Southern Nevada Correctional Center in 1987 was located in a California prison yesterday under an assumed name. Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said Joseph Carl Mancini walked away from a prison work detail while serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for sexual assault and grand larceny. Mancini's fingerprints were used in locating him at the California State Prison at Corcoran, where he is serving time for grand theft auto under the name Richard Lobb, said the attorney general.

EXTRADITION WAIVED -- An Oregon teenager who was arrested in Las Vegas after his story was broadcast on "America's Most Wanted" TV show has waived extradition and will return to Portland to face charges in a string of robberies. Thomas Gifford Curtis, 18, appeared in Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo's courtroom Thursday and agreed to return voluntarily to Oregon where he is wanted on charges in 19 armed holdups during the past two years. Curtis, a former high school student body president and homecoming king, was reported to have been living in Arizona and working at a deli before the television show last weekend told of his legal problems. He had been on the run since April 16 when his alleged accomplice, Ethan Thrower, shot himself in the groin while sticking a pistol into his pants after robbery No. 19. Thrower was arrested at that time, but Curtis eluded authorities and finally found work in Mesa, Ariz., near Phoenix.

HANTAVIRUS -- The state Health Division said Thursday Nevada's eighth case of hantavirus has been found in Elko County. It's the first confirmed case in the state in more than 2 1/2 years and an investigation has started to determine how the person contracted the disease. This case is said not to be fatal but two other state cases of hantavirus have resulted in death. The rare and often fatal respiratory disease is caused by a virus transmitted to humans through urine, feces and saliva of wild rodents, primarily deer mice. The illness starts with flu-like symptoms and may progress to lung failure.