News briefs for Nov. 11, 2003

Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003 | 10:44 a.m.

Gunman shoots two men in home

Two men were hospitalized with gunshot wounds this morning after a break-in at a home near Decatur Boulevard and Desert Inn Road, Metro Police said.

The gunman remains at large, police said.

Shortly after 4 a.m. a man forced his way through the front door of the home in the 3100 block of Castlewood Drive and opened fire on two men, striking one in a hand and the other in the chest, back, leg and arm, police said.

The man who was shot four times had life-threatening injuries, police said. That victim told officers he knew the man who shot him, police said. He was taken to University Medical Center and was in critical condition this morning.

Police said the gunman fled the scene in a silver, four-door car with tinted windows. A description of the suspect was not immediately available.

Lost boys spotted from helicopter

Two 15-year-old boys were found shortly after 7 p.m. Monday, cold but safe after becoming lost on a hike at Mount Charleston.

Metro Police's Search and Rescue team sent a helicopter up, which spotted the boys and brought them back to safety.

The boys used a cell phone to help rescuers find them.

Motorists warned of seat belt law

Local police and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers are cracking down on motorists who do not wear seat belts.

The state Office of Traffic Safety, a division of the Department of Public Safety, are alerting motorists to the seat belt law with ads airing statewide.

Officers will increase enforcement of the seat belt law from Nov. 17 until Nov. 30.

"Wearing a seat belt is not an option, it's the law and we enforce it every day," Trooper Rocky Gonzalez of the Nevada Highway Patrol said. There are no exceptions and no excuses, he said.

Of the 284 motorists killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2002, 146 were unbuckled. Authorities estimated that half of those victims would have survived if they had been wearing a seat belt.

Nearly 22 percent of Nevada motorists still do not wear seat belts. The public announcements combined with enforcement are efforts to get more Nevadans to buckle up.

"With increased traffic on the roads during the holiday season, motorists need to protect themselves by buckling up," Chuck Abbott, chief of the Office of Traffic Safety, said.