Murder suspect just quit job at Boys and Girls Club

Tuesday, Feb. 2, 1999 | 10:07 a.m.

Michael Jerome McNeil, 23, Sparks, was a bus driver and worked in the arts and crafts room at the Truckee Meadows Boys and Girls Club for about three weeks.

He gave a week's notice last Thursday because he "couldn't handle little kids," said Maureen Woolsey, the club's executive director.

McNeil is accused of fatally shooting Anthony Jerel Thomas, 28, in the chest early Sunday and wounding Dawn Cherie Pelton, 24, McNeil's former girlfriend.

Detectives said there were angry telephone calls between McNeil and the victims before McNeil allegedly kicked in the apartment door at 4:41 a.m.

"He then confronted the two victims in the master bedroom and fired his weapon at them," the Sparks Police Department's report said.

Police are investigating the case as a homicide.

McNeil, who recently was paroled on the armed robbery conviction, was being held without bail in the Washoe County Jail. He has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, burglary and felon in possession of a firearm.

The Boys and Girls Club follows an employment-screening procedure but a background check on McNeil had not yet come back to the club, Woolsey said.

"We need to look at how we can expedite the process," she said.

McNeill did pass a drug test and got a clean report from the Department of Motor Vehicles, which took 24 hours to report back, she said.

Sgt. Bob Schmidt of the Sparks Police Department said no other details on the shootings were being released.

"We're getting at least three different stories and the suspect is not talking," he said.