News briefs for August 22, 2002

Thursday, Aug. 22, 2002 | 9:55 a.m.

Fallon testing water supply

Fallon Mayor Ken Tedford said the city is testing its water supply after federal scientists announced that residents of the farming and military town had high levels of the metal tungsten.

Environmental consultant Shepherd Miller began drawing water samples Wednesday morning. Fallon, 60 miles southeast of Reno, has 16 confirmed cases of childhood leukemia. Three of the victims have died.

The city has never included tungsten in its water testing program because there have been no health problems reported among exposed people, Tedford said. The leukemia cases have been reported since 1997.

Fallon water officials knew for years that municipal water contains 100 parts per billion of arsenic, an amount 10 times higher than the proposed federal limit.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced its preliminary finding of high levels of tungsten and arsenic in Fallon residents on Tuesday. CDC officials said they have asked for a study of tungsten in Fallon as a national priority.

Slain couple are identified

A man and woman shot to death Tuesday in North Las Vegas have been identified as 30-year-old Alfie Poston and 32-year-old Toni Woods-Williamson.

Woods-Williamson was found dead on the sidewalk and Poston dead on the street by their rental car in the 2000 block of Lawry Avenue at Comstock Drive about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The slain man had a handgun, but police do not know if it had been fired. Detectives had determined it was not a murder-suicide and the pair had been killed by someone else, police said.

The motive for the slayings has not been determined and no suspects have been identified or arrested.

Anyone with information in this case is asked to call North Las Vegas Police at 633-9111 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.

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Amber Alert to be considered

Gov. Kenny Guinn said he is creating a statewide task force that will develop an America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (Amber) alert system for Nevada.

Guinn's announcement comes on the heels of the rescue this week of a 10-year-old California girl in Mineral County by Nevada authorities after the California Highway Patrol activated its Amber alert system.

"Nichole Taylor Timmons being returned safely to her home underscores how effective the Amber Alert system can be," Guinn said.

Currently, 15 states are using the system that was introduced in 1996 and has been credited with the rescue of at least 26 children.

Teen sentenced in shootings

A Las Vegas teen who pleaded no contest to shooting two women, leaving one in an irreversible coma, was sentenced to six to 15 years in prison Wednesday.

Auntrell Clark, 17, acknowledged last month that the state could prove he was guilty in the Sept. 30 shooting of Kizzy "Pooh" Edwards, 20, and Celeste Walker, 32.

Walker, who was shot in the back, recovered from the shooting, but Edwards lost so much blood from a leg wound she slipped into a coma.

A juvenile probation officer told authorities Clark confessed he accidentally shot the women while trying to shoot some other people.

Clark was allowed to plead no contest to one count of battery with use of a deadly weapon, causing substantial bodily harm, because prosecutors feared his confession would not be admissible at trial.