Local briefs

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 1999 | 10:14 a.m.

Police seek help in solving killing

Metro Police are trying to determine a motive in a Tuesday morning shooting near the west edge of the valley.

About 2:30 a.m. police responded to a shooting call at the Rancho de Montana apartments, 9105 W. Flamingo Road.

Police found Tae Chong, 39, of Las Vegas dead in the complex's parking lot from an apparent gunshot wound in the chest.

Several neighbors reported hearing the gunshot and seeing a man running west from the area, police said.

Anyone with information on this shooting is asked to call Secret Witness at 385-5555 or homicide detectives at 229-3521.

Las Vegan killed in Texas accident

A Las Vegas man was killed in a three-vehicle crash Monday night that left his passenger dead and two federal judges injured outside this east Texas town about 60 miles from the Louisiana border.

A Honda driven by Gabriel Mark Fisher of Las Vegas collided head-on with a Buick driven by Fifth Circuit Judge Robert M. Parker, 61, of Tyler, Texas.

Fisher, 28, died at the scene. His passenger, Kasey Leann Davis, 22, of Texarkana, died at Memorial Mother Frances Hospital.

Parker was listed in fair condition Tuesday at a Tyler hospital. U.S. District Judge John Hannah Jr. was in critical but stable condition Tuesday in a Palestine hospital.

According to a Department of Public Safety report, the judges were returning from a dinner in Houston and were northbound on U.S. 79 3 miles outside of Oakwood.

Fisher, driving southbound in a no-passing zone, attempted to pass a tractor-trailer and saw the judges' Buick coming toward him, so he veered back into his lane but collided with the tractor-trailer, the DPS report said. Fisher's car was knocked into the northbound lane and collided with Judge Parker's car.

Man arrested after tourists' bags taken

Metro Police have arrested a man in connection with the theft of at least 22 pieces of luggage taken from McCarran International Airport on Aug. 23.

Thomas Carrillo, 33, was arrested by Metro's Tourist Safety Unit and charged with multiple counts of possession of stolen property, after 18 missing suitcases were discovered in a Rio hotel room.

The suitcases belonged to an Asian tourist group that flew to Las Vegas on America West Airlines, and police have already begun to return the stolen property.

Carrillo had an identification card belonging to a Seattle airport employee, and police think he may have impersonated an airport employee and drove off the flight line with the luggage.

Carrillo, who is in custody at the Clark County Detention Center, was simultaneously registered at five Las Vegas hotels when he was arrested, police said.

Police say Carrillo is on medication for depression and is on a suicide watch.