Gang violence still not confirmed in NLV killings

Keith Paul

Thursday, Aug. 23, 2001 | 10:36 a.m.

The two 19-year-old men killed early Wednesday are believed to be members of the same gang, but detectives don't know if their slayings are another in series of gang-related murders plaguing North Las Vegas.

Police have the two men documented as members of a gang affiliated with one of the two warring gangs in North Las Vegas.

The names of the two men were not released this morning by the Clark County coroner's office, which was conducting an autopsy.

"At this point we don't know why they were killed," said Lt. Art Redcay, a police spokesman. "We don't know if it was related to the gang or if there was a dispute with someone not related to the gangs."

However, if it was gang related, retaliation would be expected to follow in the next few days, following a long list of shootings and killings that have occurred this year in the area, police said.

The two men were found in the 2300 block of West Cartier Avenue, near Carey Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard, about 6:40 a.m. Wednesday, but detectives believe the men were killed earlier in the morning.

Police first said no area residents called in reports of a shooting about 4 a.m. But Redcay said 911 dispatchers were called about that time, from several blocks away from the shooting.

Officers were sent out to the area, but the bodies were not discovered. Later in the morning, one of the men was found by a wood fence and another in a dirt lot across the street, police said.

Police have not identified or arrested any suspects in the two slayings.

Before the slayings Wednesday, the ongoing gang violence had led to 13 killings -- nine in North Las Vegas and four in West Las Vegas -- in the area around Martin Luther King from Carey to Owens Avenue. It is an area that borders both North Las Vegas Police and Metro Police jurisdictions.

Anyone with information in the recent slayings is asked to call North Las Vegas Police at 633-9111 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.