Thursday, June 19, 2003 | 11:21 a.m.
A gang member who was arrested early Monday after allegedly firing his assault rifle at police might have been able to shoot officers if his gun hadn't jammed, according to police records.
Before police shot and arrested him, 26-year-old Samuel Pratt Moten apparently fired as many as 29 bullets, judging by the number of cartridge shells police reported finding in the 2000 block of West Lake Mead Boulevard, and he had his gun pointed at officers, but apparently was unable to fire it, the arrest report indicates.
Police said they had been told that Moten was in the area with an AK-47 and that he "had terminal cancer and he intended to harm police police patrolling the neighborhood."
Metro Police gang unit detectives were in that area because of ongoing gang activity and recent shootings, and about 12:45 a.m. they heard a shot on the west side of the apartments. As they headed that way they "heard a volley of numerous gunshots fired rapidly in succession" and it sounded like an assault rifle, officers reported.
As police got closer to the west side of the complex, they saw a man matching Moten's description step out of the courtyard and fire numerous shots in the direction of a North Las Vegas Police patrol car parked on the street, according to the police records. After firing the shots, the gunman ran back into the courtyard of the apartment complex.
Det. Mark Linebarger and another Metro gang unit detective went after the gunman. As they turned the corner into the courtyard they saw Moten crouched at the top of a stairwell immediately in front of them, the police report notes.
Moten was pointing the muzzle of his assault rifle at them, the arrest record notes. Police said they ordered him to drop the gun but he instead moved the barrel toward the officers, according to the report.
Linebarger, 33, who has been with Metro since February 1995, said he was afraid Moten was going to kill him. He fired four shots, at least one of which hit Moten in the abdomen, and Moten ran into a nearby apartment carrying the rifle.
Three women, one man and a baby were in the apartment.
One of the women later told police that when she heard gunshots, she looked out the window and saw a man firing a rifle at a marked police vehicle on the street. She said that shortly after that a man bleeding from a gunshot wound burst into the apartment, the report noted.
As he ran upstairs in the apartment, Moten said he had been shot by a member of a rival gang, the man who had been in the apartment told police.
Everybody but Moten came out of the apartment, and after a four-hour standoff police went in and arrested him. Inside the apartment, police reported finding a Norinco MAK-90 Sporter, a Chinese-made semi-automatic version of the more familiar Russian AK-47 assault rifle. It had the shoulder stock cut down to a pistol grip and a magazine in the rifle had 25 bullets in it. The rifle had jammed when two bullets fed simultaneously into the chamber, police reported.
Outside the apartment building officers found 29 shells from bullets that match that type of rifle, including four cartridge cases that were on the ground in the area from which officers said they saw the shots fired in the direction of the North Las Vegas police car. An empty magazine was found in the apartment.
Police learned later that Moten had been previously been convicted of two felonies -- voluntary manslaughter with a weapon in September 1997 and possession of a firearm by an ex-felon in August 2002.
Moten was treated at University Medical Center for his gunshot wound then was booked into Clark County Detention Center for attempted murder of a police officer. He was being held without bail this morning and was expected to face additional charges, officials said.
The sale of new assault weapons was banned in 1994, but many sold prior to the ban remain on the streets, law enforcement officials have noted. Lt. Robert DuVall of Metro's firearms unit said police see MAK-90s used in crimes from time to time, but the AK-47 is the more common assault rifle.
Most assault rifles on the streets have been stolen, he said, and some are bought on the black market.
archive
