Shootings on east side leave two dead

Angela Soo and Keith Paul

Friday, Oct. 26, 2001 | 9:41 a.m.

A woman carried a bundled infant in her arms followed closely by dazed-looking and sobbing 12-year-old and 13-year-old boys Thursday night. The three children survived a shooting rampage that left their mother and her boyfriend dead and two older siblings shot.

"The two boys looked traumatized," said Harold Lentner, a neighbor whose apartment the children were taken to after the shooting. "And the baby had blood on it, so one of the people who got shot was probably holding the baby when it happened."

The children's father, Richard Dewayne Armstrong, 43, now in custody, was outside of their mother's apartment in the 5100 block of East Sahara Avenue near Nellis Boulevard Thursday about 8 p.m. The two apparently talked for a short time, but then the 43-year-old woman became upset and went back into her home, said Sgt. Kevin Manning of Metro Police's homicide unit.

The woman got a temporary protective order two days before the shootings against Armstrong, her estranged husband, according to court records.

Armstrong walked to the upstairs apartment and knocked on the door. Armstrong's 17-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son answered.

Armstrong is then accused of pushing his way inside. The 17-year-old girl tried to stop him, but Armstrong is accused of shooting her twice to get into the apartment, Manning said.

"The brother came after the dad, and then he shot the boy," Sgt. Stan Hyt said.

The two teenagers were taken to University Medical Center and are listed in fair condition this morning, a nursing supervisor said. The infant, the 43-year-old woman's 11-month-old grandson, and her two sons were not injured. Relatives took the boys in.

The mother ran to the phone to call 911, but Armstrong is accused of gunning her down. The woman's friend, a 30-year-old man, ran toward a back bedroom, but Armstrong is accused of shooting the man in the back and killing him.

Armstrong, dressed in a uniform -- he works for an airline -- then ran from the apartment and sped away in a red car, police said.

About 8:20 p.m. 911 was flooded with "massive calls of shots fired," Manning said.

Police tracked the car to an apartment in the 6000 block of Paradise Road near Sunset Road. While police were trying to find him, Armstrong called 911 at 8:47 p.m. saying he had shot his wife. The dispatcher kept him on the phone as officers went to the front of the apartment. Armstrong was threatening suicide, but he soon walked out of the apartment and was quickly handcuffed.

Armstrong was being held without bond in the Clark County jail on two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Armstrong was seen running from the apartment after the shooting with a gun in his hand, said Dominic Salazar, a resident of the apartment complex.

Soon after Armstrong sped away in the car, the wounded 17-year-old girl grabbed the infant and ran from the apartment.

Frank Chabes, who is Lentner's grandfather and is visiting from Phoenix, said Armstrong's daughter was shot in the cheek and hip.

"She was bleeding from the face and came out with the baby and the two boys," Chabes said. "She was saying: Somebody help. My mom's dead upstairs."

Police had already arrived by this time, and Chabes asked them if he could take care of the three children while the shooting victims were at the hospital.

"All they had on were shorts and they were bare foot," Chabes said. "It was so cold outside."

Although neighbors did not remember previous problems between Armstrong and his family, the estranged wife was apparently afraid of her husband.

Despite the restraining order against Armstrong, Hyt said, the court order is meaningless to people who have nothing to lose.

"Courts can only go so far to protect people," Hyt said. "When someone's going to throw it all away, there's no stopping them."