News briefs for April 11, 2001

Wednesday, April 11, 2001 | 10:54 a.m.

Girl remains in critical condition

An 11-year-old girl remains in critical condition today at University Medical Center, after Metro Police say she accidentally shot herself in the head with her grandmother's handgun.

The accident occurred about 7:45 p.m. in a home in the 100 block of Harvard Street, near U.S. 95 and Decatur Boulevard, Sgt. Jim Young said.

"Preliminarily it looks like she was holding the gun, and it went off and struck her in the head," Young said. "It looks like there were five children in the house ranging from age 2 to 13."

The 13-year-old was baby-sitting the children until their mother returned home, Young said.

The grandmother had the pistol for protection, and had owned it for about 15 years, Young said.

Henderson loosens business rules

Henderson pawnshops will no longer be restricted to industrial areas.

The Henderson City Council voted 4-0 Tuesday to allow pawnshops to operate in commercial areas near highways and residential neighborhoods. Councilman Steve Kirk was absent.

But pawnbrokers will not be allowed to open any new stores in the old downtown or in any areas zoned tourist commercial, as recommended last month by the Planning Commission.

Stores will be required to dedicate at least 50 percent of floor space to retail sales. The sale of firearms will be prohibited.

The City Council also maintained the latitude to impose additional restrictions on a case-by-case basis.

About 10 pawnshops operate in Henderson, most of them on Boulder Highway.

Las Vegas among highest in nation

Las Vegas moved up on the list of cities with the most auto thefts, according to an insurance industry group study.

The Las Vegas metropolitan area, which includes part of Arizona, rose to sixth in the nation in number of auto thefts per 100,000 residents last year, compared with ninth last year, the National Insurance Crime Bureau said.

Citing FBI statistics, the nonprofit group said 794.37 cars were stolen per 100,000 residents last year. Phoenix was first, with 979.06 thefts per 100,000 people.

Miami and Detroit -- holders of the top two spots last year -- slipped one place apiece.

"If your city appears toward the top of our list, you need to be extra careful and take steps to protect your vehicle from theft," said Robert Bryant, president and chief executive of NICB.

Nationwide a vehicle is stolen every 25 seconds in what has become a $7.5 billion illegal business, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a trade organization.

Victim identified as Colorado man

A man who fell several stories to his death inside the Luxor hotel-casino in what police are calling a suicide was identified today by the Clark County coroner's office as Michael C. Brown, 33, of Aurora, Colo.

Metro Police dispatch got the call at 3:16 p.m. Tuesday that a man had leaped off a balcony inside the pyramid-shaped Strip hotel and landed near the registration desk.

LV man charged with Web crime

A 39-year-old man has been arrested in Las Vegas on charges of using an Internet chat room to attempt to arrange a meeting with an underage California girl for sex, Metro Police said.

Metro's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force arrested Miodrag Stokuca of Las Vegas at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Stokuca was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on felony warrants out of San Jose, Calif., charging three counts of attempted sexual seduction of a minor and one count of lascivious conduct with a minor.

Police say the intended victim was not a teenage girl but a detective from the San Jose Police Department's Child Exploitation Detail posing as a teen as part of a sting operation.

About 1,000 wild horses

were sighted during an aerial count in the mountains and hills east of Reno and Carson City. Officials had worried that the population had dropped by more than 200 horses noticed during a count conducted last summer. Only 686 horses were counted then, compared to more than 900 sighted in 1999.

A deaf Las Vegas man

has been charged in Salt Lake City of bilking deaf investors in Utah out of more than $500,000. The Utah attorney general's office has charged Thuc Tri Nguyen, 36, in 3rd District Court with nine counts of security fraud and racketeering, first- and second-degree felonies. He also is charged with two third-degree felonies of sales of unregistered securities and sales by an unlicensed broker. He posted $75,000 bond Monday.