Woman killed in drive-by shooting during wake

Tuesday, May 29, 2001 | 10:26 a.m.

A North Las Vegas woman was killed and five other people injured Friday evening when shots were fired from a car and into a crowd of people attending a wake at the woman's home.

The shooting occurred about 7:15 p.m. in the 2600 block of West Street, just west of the intersection of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Carey Avenue in a neighborhood plagued in recent months by gang violence.

Gwendolyn Jones, 35, was killed in the shooting Friday. Family and friends had gathered at Jones' home to mourn her sister, who died of cancer last week.

Three men and an 8-year-old girl were also shot, all incurring injuries below the waist or in their legs, police said. The 8-year-old was treated and released from University Medical Center, and the three men are recovering from non-life threatening injuries.

North Las Vegas Police Lt. Art Redcay said detectives are investigating the drive-by shooting.

"At this point we're not able to determine if this was gang related or not," Redcay said. "Right now all we know is that it was a drive-by shooting."

Redcay said he wasn't sure how many people had gathered for the wake, but he said at least 100 were in the area Friday night as police investigated the incident.

Witnesses told police the shots were fired from a small blue car, which had been driven slowly toward the crowd before the shots were fired.

Violence in the neighborhood in which Jones lived had calmed in recent weeks. During a three-week stretch in late February and early March, residents there had lived through several shootings. Feuding gangs are accused of killing at least six people, including a church deacon and another innocent bystander during that time.

The violence was centered on the area of Martin Luther King between Carey and Lake Mead Boulevard, where the jurisdictions of North Las Vegas and Metro Police meet.

A week ago detectives made five arrests as part of an investigation into the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Joe Williams on March 3.

Police are searching for Lamont Antwan "T-Wak" Graves, 21, in connection with Williams' slaying.