Friday, May 10, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.
Isaac Perez always wanted a Lincoln Town Car. Even when his cousin would poke fun of him, calling it an old man's car, Perez never wavered. He wanted a Town Car.
A month ago, he bought one. The last images of Perez seen alive came from a security camera at Ruth Fyfe Elementary School Wednesday night as he was forced into the driver's seat of his car and then drove off.
The video appears to show Perez being carjacked by a 16-year-old suspect Wednesday night at the school where Perez was the night custodian, Metro Police said.
Police said there doesn't appear to be any connection between Perez and the 16-year-old suspect, Giles Manley of Las Vegas, who is accused of killing two people and shooting a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper in a five-hour spree that included two carjackings and a police chase.
Manley was in fair condition this morning under police guard at University Medical Center. When he is discharged from the hospital, he will be booked into the Clark County jail as an adult on murder, attempted murder and other charges.
Perez's family members say they are sure there is no connection between Manley and Perez.
"There is no way he knew this kid. If this kid wanted the car, Isaac would have given him the car," said Eric Quintana, Perez's cousin.
There was too much that just wasn't right, family members said. When he was forced to drive off, Perez left the doors of the school unlocked, a vacuum cleaner outside and his cleaning cart sticking out a door, Quintana said.
When Perez, who police say was forced to drive the Town Car, spotted a trooper who had pulled a car over on the Eastern Avenue exit ramp off U.S. 95, he appeared to try to get the trooper's attention. It was apparently a move that cost him his life.
"We think he was trying to slow down and just jump out, but he locked up (the brakes) and ran into the car the trooper had pulled over," said Lt. Tom Monahan of Metro's homicide unit. "I think the collision was an accident and he was just trying to get assistance from the trooper."
But after Perez hit the stopped car, the trooper heard gunshots from inside the Town Car. Manley is accused of getting out and then shooting at the trooper, hitting the 33-year-old in the foot before fleeing.
Perez was left wounded in his Town Car and was pronounced dead when he got to the hospital.
Manley is accused of fleeing the area of the crash and carjacking another vehicle as he ran from the Town Car. He is accused of carjacking a Chevrolet Tahoe from a parking lot at Eastern and Stewart avenues at gunpoint.
About four hours later, a North Las Vegas Police officer spotted the stolen Tahoe in the city's downtown area. The officer tried to pull the driver over, but the Tahoe sped up, said Lt. Art Redcay, a North Las Vegas Police spokesman.
The 22-minute high-speed chase, filmed by a crew from the television show "COPS" in one of the pursuing police cars, ended when the Tahoe smashed into a car at Vegas Drive at Decatur Avenue about 2:30 a.m. The force of the collision pushed the car hundreds of feet from the intersection, killing the motorist, 41-year-old Patrick W. Melia of Las Vegas.
Police then took Manley into custody and found a gun in the Tahoe, Redcay said.
Detectives are now left to question why someone would go on such a deadly spree without any apparent specific plan.
"It doesn't speak well for society when a 16-year-old rises to that kind of violence," Monahan said.
Quintana doesn't care about the motivation -- he wants justice.
"We've been through this before. I just hope they don't do some kind of plea bargain," he said.
Quintana was referring to a woman who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but eligible for parole in eight years, after being convicted in a 1999 crash that killed his 8-year-old son.
Perez had recently moved here from Waco, Texas.
"We were close. He was more like a brother than a cousin," Quintana said. "I remember when he said he wanted to get a Town Car. He always said he wanted a Town Car. I was like, 'That's an old man's car.' But he didn't care, he went and got it."
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