Citizen’s pursuit leads to arrest of suspect in slaying at intersection

Keith Paul

Wednesday, July 25, 2001 | 11:05 a.m.

The actions of an alert bystander helped police arrest a man in a shooting death Tuesday at a busy intersection.

After the 27-year-old man was shot Tuesday morning jumping from a red Jeep Cherokee, a motorist followed the fleeing vehicle and called 911, telling Metro Police a license plate number and the direction the Jeep was heading.

It was that act of getting involved that led to an arrest within 10 minutes of the shooting a short distance from the intersection of Charleston Boulevard and Antelope Way, where the victim, who had not been identified this morning, died about 10:20 a.m. Tuesday.

"Without their help, all we would have known was it was a red vehicle speeding away," said Sgt. Kevin Manning of Metro's homicide unit. "They helped us vector in where the vehicle was and locate the suspects."

It was a drastic difference from other homicides that are witnessed by scores of people yet no one tells the police anything. Such was the case Saturday, when Charles Fields was killed in the bathroom of a lounge on Owens Avenue. The packed bar yielded no witnesses and no arrests have been made.

But Tuesday, when the man hit the roadway on Charleston Boulevard and Antelope Way, a car followed the red Jeep as it sped away.

"We just wanted to get a license plate number," said the car's passenger through an interpreter. "We were scared because he had to drive very fast."

She said she and the driver followed the Jeep, because they felt it was the right thing to do.

With the information witnesses provided, police were able to spot the Jeep near Buffalo Drive and Peacock Avenue, where the 19-year-old female driver and 45-year-old passenger, Danny McRae, were taken into custody, Manning said.

McRae was held in the Clark County jail this morning on a murder charge. The driver was questioned about the slaying, then released without being charged, Manning said.

The victim and McRae apparently started arguing in the Jeep about over a woman. The man was in the rear seat and McRae was in the front passenger seat, police said.

As the argument became more heated, the man tried to get out of the Jeep as it stopped on Charleston Boulevard at Antelope Way. As the man was getting out, police allege, McRae shot him. The female driver was not the subject of the argument between the two men, police said.

The man hit ground in the busy intersection, but many motorists just tried to drive around him.

"I saw him hit the ground and I wedged my truck in front of him so no one would hit him," Robert Taylor said. "I thought he got hit by a car, but then I saw the blood on his shirt."

Taylor said while some motorist tried to help the man, others were just trying to drive around and honking their horns.

"His eyes were kind of glazing over and he was looking up as he was trying to take a breath," he said. "We tried to help, but when the paramedics got here, they said there was nothing we could have done and nothing they could have done."