Metro gang unit probes two fatal drive-by shootings

Keith Paul

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2000 | 10:50 a.m.

Metro Police continue to investigate whether gangs were involved in a pair of drive-by shootings that killed two high school students over the weekend, but they have no reason to believe the two incidents were connected.

No arrests have been made in the Friday afternoon shooting of 17-year-old Samuel A. Larios or the Sunday night shooting of 15-year-old Christopher Gaiter.

"It's impossible to say there is any trend. It was obviously two very tragic incidents that occurred within a short time of one another," Metro homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen said. "We're still sorting through information trying to solve them."

Larios was shot once in the head Friday about 1:35 p.m. as he was getting out of a car on Yale Street near Decatur Boulevard and Washington Avenue.

Detectives said Larios, a Western High School student, was a passenger in a car that was being followed by a vehicle carrying other teenagers, according to witnesses. Someone in the following vehicle fired the shot that killed Larios, they said.

Apparently there had been a clash at Western High earlier in the week between two groups of students, Petersen said. While Larios may not have been involved in the incident, someone else in the car may have been.

Gaiter, who was briefly a Clark High School student, was shot about 6:25 p.m. Sunday as he was walking with a friend to his home in the 2600 block of South Arville Street.

In that shooting, a car with four or five teenagers passed them several times, then followed them into an apartment complex. One of the teens in the car cursed at them in Spanish, police said.

Gaiter and his friend stopped and raised up their hands and may have asked what the problem was, homicide Sgt. Kevin Manning said.

A shot was fired, hitting Gaiter in the back as he and his friend ran into the complex.

"We have not uncovered that (Gaiter) had any problems with anyone at school," Manning said.

Gaiter was at Clark High School for a few months at the start of the school year, but was attending continuation school at the Juvenile Court building. Continuation school is for students charged with serious offenses, Clark County school officials said.

School officials would not reveal the nature of the incident that landed Gaiter at the continuation school.

The shootings were both drive-bys and involved teens, but police say that's where the similarities end.

"They went to different schools and they occurred in different parts of town," Manning said.

Metro's gang unit is checking out information in these cases trying to determine whether it was the work of gang members, Petersen said.

"The gang section is not only trying to help solve these cases, but preventing any further violence," Petersen said. "Oftentimes we have one homicide and then there are repercussions and retaliation leading to further violence."

Anyone with information in either shooting is asked to call Metro's homicide unit at 229-3521, or those wishing to remain anonymous may call Secret Witness at 355-5555.