Two teens dead, one jailed after car chase

Jace Radke

Tuesday, May 30, 2000 | 11:37 a.m.

Two Las Vegas teenagers are dead and another is in the county jail this morning after a high-speed chase with Metro Police early Monday.

Milton Ennis, 14, was charged as an adult with two counts of felony murder, possession of a stolen car and felony evading a police officer. He is accused of driving a stolen car involved in the three-vehicle crash.

Cedric J. Tiffith, 16, and Miguel A. Munoz, 15, were killed about 2:20 a.m. Monday after crashing a stolen 1995 Honda Civic into a concrete barrier wall on U.S. 95 near downtown Las Vegas.

A Metro Police officer in the area of Smoke Ranch Road and Rainbow Boulevard spotted the stolen Civic, and a 1996 Civic that had just been stolen, department spokesman Steve Meriwether said. The officer followed the stolen cars as they got onto U.S. 95 southbound at Lake Mead Boulevard, and near the Decatur Boulevard exit police tried to stop the Hondas.

As soon as patrol cars flipped on their lights to pull over the Civics, the cars accelerated to speeds near 100 mph, police said.

The 1995 Civic, driven by Tiffith with Munoz riding as a passenger, crashed into a concrete barrier wall on the south road edge near the Casino Center Boulevard exit, then careened across the three southbound lanes, striking the center barrier and a light pole, police said.

The Civic broke into three pieces from the impact, and both the 16-year-old and the 15-year-old were thrown from the car and died at the scene, police said.

A patrol car, driven by Officer Edward Erickson, 24, started to slow down as the first Honda hit the pole, but the 1996 Honda Civic hit the patrol car from behind. The 1996 Civic, driven by Ennis, slid into the south road edge barrier.

Erickson was taken to University Medical Center, where he was treated for minor injuries. The 14-year-old driver of the second Honda has been booked into the Clark County Detention Center and charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, felony evading a police officer and two counts of felony murder, because the deaths were a result of felony criminal activity.

All three teenagers knew each other and are believed to have been working together on the car thefts, police said.

This was the second fatal high-speed chase in a week.

Last week 28-year-old Clark Ford, driving the wrong way while fleeing from police on Interstate 15, hit two cars, killing himself and another man and injuring four others.

The pursuit began Thursday about 5:30 a.m. when Ford was stopped by a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper.

Ford reached speeds of more than 100 mph heading into Arizona as Mohave County Sheriff deputies put down road spikes to stop him. Ford avoided the spikes but crashed into a woman's car and then hit another car containing four people.

The woman and three occupants of the second car were critically injured. A man in the second car also died.