Double slayings don’t deter resolve at strip mall

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2002 | 11:13 a.m.

Karl Vetter, owner of Kool Kollectables in the Commercial Center shopping complex, is a self-styled crime prevention activist.

After opening his comic book store two years ago in the blighted strip mall at 953 E. Sahara Ave., he began an aggressive campaign to drive crime from the complex.

He created the Commercial Center Business Owners' Coalition, got rid of the "hustlers and con men" hanging out at the complex and painted over graffiti.

A double homicide that occurred Monday morning in the Commercial Center parking lot doesn't discourage him, he said. He sees it more as an anomaly.

"I doubt there's anything anyone could've done to prevent it," Vetter said Monday while leaning against a glass counter in his store. "If someone wants to drive by and shoot you, you're going to get shot."

The shooting happened about 4:45 a.m. in the complex parking lot.

Two men, identified by the Clark County Coroner's Office as Leonard Wilson, 24, and Ryan Clark, 23, of New Mexico were drinking beer in the parking lot just before they were shot, Metro Homicide Lt. Tom Monahan said.

The Clark County Coroner's Office identified the victims as Leonard Wilson, 24, and Ryan Clark, 23, both of New Mexico.

A witness told police a black pickup truck with a lift kit and large, knobby tires left the parking lot after the shooting, and police would like to talk to whoever was in the truck. Monahan said witnesses weren't able to describe the driver, and they don't have a license plate number.

Only two businesses in the complex were open when the shooting occurred, and Monahan said neither victim had been inside either of them before the shooting.

The motive for the homicide remains unclear. It could be drug-related, although there's no evidence to suggest that, Monahan said.

"Those two might have gotten into a beef with someone," he said.

The slayings were a blow to the complex, which consists of 26 shops, restaurants and bars, as well as several adult-themed establishments.

The complex was part of Clark County's urban renewal program in the 1960s. In exchange for building the strip mall, the county agreed to pay for the upkeep of the parking lot and sidewalks.

In 2000 business owners sued the county, alleging it failed to hold up its end of the deal. The case is still pending. Two weeks later a multi-agency task force raided the complex and issued a number of code violations, citing 387 police calls in a six-month period to the center.

The county this month proposed taxing business owners to help renovate the strip mall. A meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday between county officials and Commercial Center business owners to discuss reducing the proposed tax, Eric Pappa, county spokesman, said this morning. The renovation is expected to cost $3.6 million, which would cost the property owners a total of $272,429 a year.

"There was some concern among property owners that it was too much," Pappa said. "We've been working with the property owners since February to find out how we can reach an agreement."

Despite Monday's slayings, Sgt. Rick Barela, Metro spokesman, said Commercial Center "doesn't appear to be an area that's super-active" as far as crime, adding that police are doing a lot of proactive work in the complex.

Metro records show police have been called to the complex 393 times between Monday and April 28, a six-month period.

Steve Fish, who runs John Fish Jewelers with his mother, Elaine Fish, said Commercial Center is "pretty safe, with the exception of a few instances."

Elaine Fish said she would like to have more police protection. Bicycle patrol officers used to keep watch over the complex, but not lately, she said.

"I think the boys on bicycles would really help," Fish said. "If there's some police presence here, people will know they're safe when they come here."

Vetter said the shopping center does have a bad reputation, but he's been trying to turn it around. He pulled out a three-ring binder filled with business cards of police officers who have responded to the complex in the past two years.

He said he was calling Metro two or three times a day right after he opened his store to report nuisances and suspicious activity, but now he calls about once a month.

Vetter also began taking photographs of suspicious people who he said were living in the complex, "career scumbags," as he puts it. Pointing to a photo of a young man in a yellow shirt, Vetter said the man used to walk around the complex offering sex to men. Metro arrested him for prostitution, Vetter said.

He also noticed a group of men who used a wheelchair to solicit handouts from shoppers and passersby on East Sahara. Vetter dubbed them "The Wheelchair Gang."

Vetter's photos show an older man with a weathered face standing and talking to someone, then in the next photo, which Vetter said was taken the same day, the man in the wheelchair, parked at the entrance to the shopping center, holding a sign.

"These people were literally living in the shopping center," he said, pointing to several man sacked out on a Commercial Center sidewalk.

Vetter said his persistent calls to police have driven out vagrants. Although crime and nuisance activity seem to be down, he'd like to see police patrolling the shopping center more.

He's trying to put together a business/neighborhood watch in which merchants would keep an eye out for suspicious activity and alert other businesses.

"The center has gone downhill. It's no secret. Everyone knows that," Vetter said. "But there's no reason why we can't pull it out and clean it up."