Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Prowler shot by police may have been after dog

A suspected prowler who was shot by police in an Summerlin neighborhood in early December was a hired hit man seeking revenge on a Rottweiler who had killed another dog the day before, police reports say.

An arrest warrant for Ryan Schiestel, 25, alleges Schiestel hired Melvin Gilchrist, 26, to either beat up or kidnap the dog.

Police said Mark Escoto, who lives in the 1800 block of Glen View Drive, had called police on Dec. 5 reporting that a man wearing dark clothing was prowling in his back yard.

The first officer on the scene, Bryan Yant, heard a loud "bang" and saw Gilchrist on the side of the Escoto's yard. Gilchrist had items later identified as a butcher knife and a bat in his hands, police said.

Yant, 27, thought the bat was a shotgun and fired at least two shots at Gilchrist when he failed to follow orders to drop the weapons in his hands and then charged him, the police report on the incident says.

One shot hit Gilchrist in the hip. He was treated and released from University Medical Center that morning and then booked into the Clark County Detention Center.

One of Escoto's Rottweilers had allegedly killed a neighbor's miniature greyhound the day before, police learned during an investigation. Police believe the Rottweilers were the reason Gilchrist was in Escoto's back yard.

According to a police report, Schiestel later told detectives he had hired Gilchrist to go to the house to "kidnap" a dog. He told detectives the dog was believed to have been involved in a Dec. 4 incident in which another dog had been killed.

"Schiestel was very angry and decided he would take action to keep this dog from harming anyone or anything again," according to the report.

Gilchrist has been charged with two counts of conspiracy to main, poison or kill another person's animal, one count of assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon, and one count of resisting a police office.

According to the police report, the officers assisting the officer who fired shots at Gilchrist saw a second subject who ran on Glen View Drive and began running into back yards to avoid police.

Officers were not able to locate the second subject but they later found a 2001 Jeep Wrangler parked on the street in the 1800 block of Glen View Drive. That vehicle was registered to Schiestel.

Inside the truck police found several pieces of luggage, two of which had identification tags bearing Gilchrist's name. The keys to the truck were still in the ignition, the police report said.

Gilchrist initially told Detective Sheila Huggins that two black males had robbed him. He said he'd followed the men to the Glenview address and that he was in the yard because the men had gone into that house.

Gilchrist later told police that he'd met a man he knew only as Ryan at a store and he had approached the man to try to sell some DVDs and videogames. Gilchrist said he needed the money to buy an airline ticket to New York, the police report said.

He said the man named Ryan purchased two DVDs and offered to buy Gilchrist his airplane ticket if he would go with him to a house and "beat up" a dog, the officer wrote.

Gilchrist told police he agreed and Schiestel drove Gilchrist to his apartment and gave him a large kitchen knife and a black baseball bat. The men drank some alcohol and Schiestel drove Gilchrist to the Glen View address.

Gilchrist said he went to the house and jumped the fence. He said he saw several dogs in the yard and he was trying to find the dog he had agreed to "beat up," when the officer arrived.

"Detective Huggins again confronted Gilchrist and asked him, 'Did (Schiestel) know the people that he sent you in to kill their dogs?' and Gilchrist said 'I don't know.' "

Schiestel said he parked his truck down the street and waited while Gilchrist went into the back yard of the home. He said he couldn't see what happened but that he saw a police officer arrive and he heard gunshots. He said he then ran through back yards to avoid police.

The police-involved shooting was the morning after the Rottweiler allegedly attacked the Italian greyhound owned by Rosemary Sketchley-Deets. Both Sketchley-Deets and the Rottweiler's owners, Mark and Shirley Escoto, live on Glenview Drive.

Sketchley-Deets said her 10-year-old son took the family's two miniature Italian greyhounds out for a walk around 3:15 p.m. on Dec. 4. She said she watched her son and the 10-pound dogs, described by Sketchley-Deets as "pampered lap dogs," walk down the driveway.

"He came back a little while later screaming hysterically that a big dog came and attacked Sasha and tore her in two pieces," Sketchley-Deets said.

She ran out the door to find other adults already trying to wrestle the greyhound, Sasha, away from the Rottweiler.

"The Rottweiler had Sasha in his jaws and was throwing her around," Sketchley-Deets said. "It was horrid."

Sketchley-Deets rushed the dog to the veterinarian but Sasha's spine was severed and there was nothing they could do.

She said her family is distraught about the whole situation, appalled at the lack of response from animal control and angry at the owners of the Rottweiler, who have "made no overture of condolences or apology."

But she said she is equally shocked that anyone would have attempted to kill the Rottweiler in retaliation. The family said they do not know either suspect.

"I don't believe in harming animals," Sketchley-Deets said.

It was unclear whether Schiestel had been arrested on the charges relating to the dog. Court records do not show any pending cases involving Schiestel and he is not mentioned in Gilchrist's case.

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