Security guard shot dead in daylight jewelry heist

Jace Radke

Friday, Sept. 17, 1999 | 10:50 a.m.

A security guard was shot to death Thursday at a Las Vegas shopping center as two armed men pulled off a daylight jewelry heist, police said.

Just before 11:30 a.m. the 37-year-old security guard walked out the front door of Chong Hing Jewelers at the Chinatown Plaza shopping center in the 4200 block of West Spring Mountain Road, Metro Police said.

As of early today, the Clark County coroner's office said it had only a "tentative identification" of the guard and could not release his name.

"It looks like the security officer was walking out to the parking lot when he was met by these two men who pulled up in a powder blue Toyota Camry," Metro homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen said.

Surveillance video shows the Camry parked in another part of the lot shortly before driving up and stopping in front of the store, Petersen said.

The guard died at the scene after being shot in the torso, police said. As police investigated the scene, the victim lay sprawled between two cars parked in front of the jewelry store near a bottle of Windex he may have been using to clean the store's windows.

"After shooting the guard, the two individuals ran into the store where they stayed for several minutes," Metro Capt. Greg Jolley said.

Police estimate that the two men, who were dressed in loose-fitting clothing and wore ski masks, were in the store for as long as three or four minutes before getting back into the Camry and heading east through the parking lot.

An estimate of the value of the jewelry taken was not available, but police did say that numerous pieces of expensive jewelry were taken.

The Camry is believed to be a model from the 1990s, police said.

The incident is similar to a robbery of a Northern California jewelry store in July. Both stores reportedly are owned by the same man. During the robbery of the store in Milpitas, Calif., however, the guard was disarmed, not killed.

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