News briefs for August 7, 2002

Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2002 | 11:04 a.m.

Suspect arrested in sister's death

A man suspected of killing his sister was captured in Pioche and later booked into the Clark County Detention Center on a charge of murder with a weapon, Metro Police said.

Brad McCulloch, 49, was arrested about 3 p.m. on Monday without incident in the Lincoln County town, Lt. Tom Monahan said.

McCulloch is a suspect in the death of his sister, Keri McCullough, who was found July 29 near a Dumpster at an apartment complex in the 5400 block of West Cheyenne Avenue near Michael Way.

Brad McCulloch shared an apartment with his sister, police said.

Police discovered his Nissan 300ZX in Boulder City before issuing a court-authorized arrest warrant.

Police ID officer in fatal shooting

The North Las Vegas Police officer who shot a man to death after responding to a domestic dispute Sunday night has been identified as Sgt. Tim Grady, 48, a 23-year veteran of the department.

Police received a call about 7:30 p.m. that a man had taken his girlfriend hostage, police spokesman Lt. Art Redcay said. The man has been identified as Deon Johnson, 29.

When officers arrived at the 2200 block of Cambridge Elm near Lake Mead and Martin Luther King boulevards, they found the man armed with a large butcher knife standing outside a car, Redcay said. A woman left the black Jetta, but the man grabbed her around the neck and held the knife near her face.

As the man backed away from officers, he stabbed the air near the woman's neck with the knife. Officers, while moving toward the couple, ordered the man to release the woman and drop the knife, Redcay said.

The man continued to threaten the woman. Fearing for the life of the woman, Grady fired a single shot. The round struck the suspect in the head. The woman was transported to a local hospital for minor wounds and was treated and released.

Juror's illness delays deliberations

The jurors in the Daniel Jones murder trial were to resume deliberations this morning after deliberations were unexpectedly canceled Tuesday.

A juror was unable to participate in deliberations after she became ill and the rest of the jurors were sent home, said Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo.

All 12 jurors were expected to gather this morning to decide if Jones should be held responsible for the April 29, 2001, stabbing death of his brother, Steven Jones, 20.

Daniel Jones told jurors his brother was accidentally stabbed in the heart during a verbal argument. Posecutors alleged Jones should be convicted of either first or second-degree murder.

Water facility to be tested

As part of start-up testing, the Southern Nevada Water Authority will be releasing significant amounts of water from its new River Mountains Water Treatment Facility.

The release will ensure that drinking water from the new facility meets all standards required by state and federal law for health and safety when it becomes operational.

The testing will take several weeks,and residents are advised to stay away from flood channels near Magic Way, Newport Avenue, Racetrack Road and Burkholder Boulevard in Henderson. Fencing has been installed as a safety precaution,and a security patrol will monitor the area during water release.

Water for the tests is drawn from Lake Mead and then pumped through pipelines to the new treatment facility to test the process.

The River Mountains Water Treatment Facility is a state-of-the-art water treatment facility that will initially treat up to 150 million gallons of water per day. The facility will be operational this fall.

Gas line hit, service interrupted

More than 4,500 Southwest Gas customers were still without service today after a contractor hit a 16-inch gas line with an auger Tuesday near the Wildhorse Golf Course at Green Valley Parkway and Warm Springs Road.

A work crew was digging a post hole to erect a net to catch balls off the golf course when they hit the gas line around 8:30 a.m., Southwest Gas spokesman Roger Buehrer said. The Henderson Fire Department evacuated three apartment buildings directly west of the golf course until 2 p.m. Tuesday as a precaution in case the gas ignited, he said.

Repairs to the line were expected to be completed late Tuesday night, but Southwest Gas workers will have to go to each house to restart the gas meters and check all gas appliances, Buehrer said.

The outage affects homes and businesses north of Patrick Lane, west of Pecos Road, south of the Union Pacific railroad tracks and east of a line running parallel to Valle Verde Drive.

Buehrer said the company is investigating how the contractors hit the marked gas line. He said the cost of restoring the gas outage was going to be "huge."

Vote expected on new hospital

The North Las Vegas City Council is expected to vote tonight on an amended plan for the Meadows Hospital Medical Center, a new hospital and medical campus that will serve the rapidly growing North Las Vegas area.

The amended plan for the 40-acre site at the northwest corner of Tropical Parkway and Losee Road was previously approved by the city's Planning Commission.

The proposed 120-bed community hospital is designed to expand to 208 beds in all private rooms, with full emergency room service, 12 operating rooms and a staff of 500.

A two-alarm fire burned on the roof

of the Las Vegas Club on Fremont Street late Tuesday, but the casino was not evacuated. Las Vegas firefighters confined the flames from construction materials to a fourth-floor roof next to the parking garage, Deputy Chief Jeff Morgan said. It took about 10 minutes to douse the flames.