Shooting raises questions for teens

Jen Lawson

Thursday, July 3, 2003 | 11:29 a.m.

One of two fireworks stands robbed Tuesday night was manned by teenagers from Community of Christ Church, who were raising money to send children to camp.

Now parents such as Patrick Nary are trying to quiet children's fears while reinforcing the message that crime doesn't pay.

An off-duty Metro police officer shot and killed 16-year-old Efraim Cuenca Dimas of Las Vegas minutes after police say he tried to hold up a fireworks booth the officer was manning. The booth was set up to raise money for Metro's K-9 program.

"We're trying to instill that you have to work for things, and for this to happen, it's hard for them to deal with," Nary said while outside the fireworks stand at Buffalo Drive and Flamingo Road. "But we're trying to work through it."

Such robberies aren't common, Metro Police say. The two fireworks stand robberies Tuesday were the only ones Metro has handled this year, though there may have been a few last year, according to Lt. Ted Snodgrass of Metro's robbery unit.

Sales at the stands began Saturday and end Friday.

Snodgrass described the robberies as crimes of opportunity.

"There is more opportunity to rob a fireworks stand than a bank," he said. "It's late at night, there's not a lot of people around."

The vast majority of fireworks booths across the Las Vegas Valley are fund-raisers for community groups, and many of them are manned by teen-agers.

The Community of Christ Church sells fireworks every year. They have two booths: one in the Smith's parking lot, where the robbery occurred, and another in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven across the street.

Sitting inside one of the booths, peering over a high counter, Jordan Trodick, 14, said he was surprised the booth got robbed, but he wasn't surprised that it happened twice: The robber only got $100, he said, and probably hit the other booth trying to get more money.

His mother, Christen McGuire, said she and about 10 other people were outside the booth shortly before the robbery. They've made more of an effort to have as many people as possible manning the booths since then, more including older adults, she said.

"That 30 minutes after everyone went home is when it happened," she said. "The more active and busy it looks, the less likely it is that this will happen."

Snodgrass said having as many people as possible around can be the best way to prevent a robbery. And, he said: "If the robber says, 'Give me your money,' give him your money."

Davina Santana and Lakeisha Sanders, both 16, were selling fireworks at a booth in southeast Las Vegas to raise money for a community softball team. They said they work the booth alone, and hadn't heard about the two robberies the night before. They weren't scared, they said.

"It's been dead here," Santana said, adding that they've made about $50 since Saturday, when the booth was set up.

In most of the booths, the fireworks are behind chicken wire to prevent theft. Most also have doors on both sides, which Santana said they keep bolted all day while they pass the time by watching movies on a small television.

At Rainbow and Cheyenne, Ellen McCoy was manning a booth with Jake Yardley, 16, Jessica Destito, 17, and Savannah Rosa, 17, who were raising money for the men's and women's soccer teams at Cimmaron Memorial High School.

"It doesn't really concern us," Rosa said of the robberies. Someone over 21 and two or three teenagers are usually on duty, she said.

Gene Fabac, a member of the Nellis Masonic Lodge No. 46, said his group has been selling fireworks at the corner of Rainbow Boulevard and Smoke Ranch Road for the past several years. They raise money to send handicapped children to Los Angeles for medical treatments.

As a portable air conditioner blew cool air into his booth, Fabac said he used to be a police officer in California and works part time for Metro, issuing parking tickets once a week to people parking in handicapped parking spots.