Shooting called a hate crime

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, Oct. 30, 2003 | 8:43 a.m.

An 18-year-old Las Vegas man will face attempted murder charges stemming from what authorities have described as a hate crime.

An indictment unsealed Wednesday charges Ryan Edward Lewis with one count each of conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder with a deadly weapon in a Sept. 24 incident.

Police say Lewis, who is white, shot at Ignatius Griffin, who is black, with an assault rifle in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Eastern Avenue.

They say Lewis fired a single shot through the window of Griffin's car after yelling out, "white power."

Griffin was not shot during the incident. He suffered multiple cuts from the glass of the windshield, which shattered during the shooting.

Lewis is in federal custody on a separate case in which he has posted $25,000 bail. In that case, he is charged with sending a threatening e-mail to a radio station.

Bail on the attempted murder case was set at $250,000. An arraignment date has not been set.

Lewis' attorney, Chris Rasmussen, said Lewis had a confrontation with Griffin in the parking lot and that Griffin had aimed a gun at Lewis.

"When the facts come out, it will show that the victim is believed to have a hand gun and was pointing it at my client," Rasmussen said. "(Lewis) was defending himself."

Rasmussen said it still is not clear whether Lewis was the only man involved in the shooting. No other suspects have been arrested.

"There is a question of whether my client is covering up for someone else who lives in the complex," he said.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Victoria Villegas was not immediately available for comment.

According to a police report taken at the scene, Griffin called police to the apartment complex at 2800 Eastern Avenue shortly after the shooting.

Griffin said he was driving through the complex in a Kia Sophia when he passed two men walking from one of the apartment buildings through the parking lot.

"As Griffin passed them, the suspects yelled, 'white power,' " the officer who took the report wrote.

The officer wrote that the two men yelled expletives and a racial epithet at Griffin. Griffin told police he then yelled expletives in return.

"Griffin stated that he then observed the skinny suspect crouch by some parked vehicles and grab what he believed to be a rifle or a shotgun ...," the officer wrote. "A single shot was then fired and Griffin's rear window exploded."

Several glass fragments struck Griffin in the upper back. Griffin then drove to another apartment building, where he called police.

During the investigation that followed, an apartment resident told police that the two men involved in the shooting had visited his apartment the night of the shooting. He identified one of the men as Lewis and said he knew the second man only as Chris.

The resident said that Lewis had come to the apartment earlier with some beer and a guitar case.

"(He) stated that Lewis opened the guitar case and showed everyone inside the apartment an SKS rifle that was fully loaded with multiple rounds," the officer wrote.

The resident said the two men left with the guitar case. Moments later the resident heard a single gunshot from the parking lot outside his apartment, he said.

When police contacted Lewis, Lewis said he and Griffin became involved in a "stare off" as Griffin drove through the parking lot.

He said Griffin reached his hand in a way that caused him to believe that Griffin was pointing a gun at him.

"Lewis admitted that he at that point panicked and grabbed his SKS rifle and fired one shot at the black male adult," the officer wrote.

Lewis would not give police any information on the other individual at the scene.

When police searched Lewis' home, they found "several symbols, books and papers signifying the ideology of White Supremacy," according to the police report.

The items included a Confederate flag hanging on the wall and a folded up flag with a swastika on it, the report states.