County enjoys drop in homicides

Keith Paul

Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2000 | 11 a.m.

Henderson reported no homicides last year, while the other police departments in the Las Vegas Valley showed decreases from 1998.

"We continue to grow in the number of people and we are having fewer crimes," Capt. Richard Perkins of Henderson Police's investigation division said. "You can't really prevent homicides, but we hope that we have a quality of life in Henderson that tends to create an environment where people are less angry at each other."

Henderson dropped to no homicides from four in 1998. North Las Vegas Police also had a decrease from 17 in 1998 to 14 last year. Metro Police, whose jurisdiction covers Las Vegas and unincorporated areas of Clark County, investigated 113 homicides last year compared with 124 in 1998.

Metro's homicide investigations included 31 domestic related slayings, 14 motivated by gang involvement, seven directly linked to the drug trade and 15 starting off as another crime such as a robbery or burglary. The largest category was listed unknown, with 46 homicides, said Metro homicide Lt. Wayne Petersen.

Metro's numbers include seven deaths considered homicides but were not ruled murders because the killings were cases of self-defense or were ruled justified.

The reasons for the decrease in the number of homicides include police putting an emphasis on domestic violence and gang issues, community policing and the criminal justice system handing down harsher sentences for convicted criminals, Petersen said.

Metro's homicide unit has solved 66 of 1999's cases, but Petersen said the unsolved cases continue to be investigated and some could be solved soon, Petersen said.

"We are getting very close on some of the open homicide cases and expect to make some progress soon," he said. "The number (of solved cases) will go up."