North Las Vegas sees drop in slayings

Keith Paul

Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2001 | 11:14 a.m.

The Las Vegas Valley's two other major cities went in opposite directions in their homicide trends in 2000, with North Las Vegas seeing a decrease in slayings and Henderson having more homicides last year than the previous three years combined.

Henderson had no homicides in 1999, but was rocked in March, when two armored car guards were ambushed during a robbery and killed. By the last slaying of the year in Henderson, on Sept. 10, the city had eight homicides. In 1998 Henderson had three slayings and in 1997 there were two.

"We feel terrible for the families of the homicide victims and have tried very hard during all of the investigations, keeping the families in mind," Henderson Police Chief Michael Mayberry said.

Arrests have been made or the cases have been forwarded to the district attorney's office in all but one of the slayings.

North Las Vegas ended 2000 with 12 homicides, four fewer than 1999, when there were 16.

Just as Henderson Police can cite no reason for the increase, North Las Vegas Police officials are hard pressed to find a reason for their decrease.

"I don't know why," Lt. Art Redcay, a North Las Vegas Police spokesman, said. "There are a lot of programs in place to deal with domestic violence and anger management. But honestly, I don't have an explanation."

Mayberry said each homicide in Henderson occurred independently of the others and there was no real pattern. There was no connection to gangs or one slaying as retribution for another.

Two of Henderson's slayings were committed during a robbery, one appeared domestic, two men's deaths appeared drug-related, and one man died apparently while horsing around with a friend with a gun. In one homicide, a teenage mother is accused of drowning her newborn, and in another a motive is not known.

Mayberry said comparing 1999's homicide total to 2000's doesn't show a true picture of Henderson. The town didn't go from a quiet, safe, growing community to a high-crime town in the span of one year.

"One in any year is too many, but we have tried very hard to make Henderson a safe city," he said.

North Las Vegas showed a decline in homicides for the third year in a row. But 2000's slaying in the city -- as in Henderson -- didn't have the distinct pattern of past years.

In 1996, when the small city had 29 killings, many of the deaths were attributed to gang slayings and retaliation for gang violence, Redcay said.

"We started to identify gangs and gang members, worked with other agencies and got out there when we heard someone was coming in from L.A. to do a shooting," Redcay said. "But the homicides (in 2000) just didn't fit into a pattern."