Death of teen attacked at mall investigated

Jen Lawson and Heather Rawlyk

Thursday, Aug. 26, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

After 17-year-old Lee Masangkay was attacked Saturday in the Boulevard mall food court by gang members wielding metal chairs, authorities thought he would just need a few stitches and he would be fine.

The Silverado High School student, who police said is not a gang member, was standing up and holding his head, Sgt. David Stansbury of the department's gang section said.

Masangkay told police, " 'I'm all right, it's not a big deal,' " Stansbury said.

The teen was taken to University Medical Center, "and he went from bad to worse," he said. "The next thing you know, he's unconcious and in 72 hours the kid is dead."

Masangkay died Tuesday. The official cause of his death was not available from the Clark County coroner this morning.

Now homicide and gang detectives are searching for witnesses who are able to describe the attackers, believed to be members of an Asian gang. While there were many people in the area when the attack occurred, police are finding few people who paid close attention because it appeared to be just a minor food court brawl involving teenagers.

It is the second homicide at the mall in five months.

The gang-related attack on Masangkay took place in the food court at the mall, at 3528 S. Maryland Parkway at Desert Inn Road.

Masangkay was in the mall with his girlfriend several hours before the fight and exchanged words with several gang members, police said. He and the girl sat down to eat at the food court about 8 p.m. and the gang members spotted him.

"Maybe he knew (the gang members) from school," Stansbury said. "There was a female there. It could have been over her. That's what we're trying to establish."

Masangkay started the last school year at Valley High School but transferred to Silverado early this year, a district spokeswoman said.

Witnesses saw three or four young men attack Masangkay, kicking him, punching him and hitting him with black plastic and metal food court chairs, Stansbury said. The attack was over before security guards could come to Masangkay's aid.

An employee of one of the food court restaurants who declined to give his name said he was working when the attack occurred. He said he came out of the back room of the restaurant where he works and saw people jumping up from their seats and backing away from their tables.

"It was a bunch of commotion," he said. "We've had fights in here before, and it didn't seem like a huge deal. I actually kept stocking and watched what was going on off and on. I had no idea the kid would die because it really didn't seem that bad."

The Boulevard mall, the second largest mall in Las Vegas, has been the scene of 16 violent crimes this year. In addition to the fatal beating of Masangkay and a fatal shooting in March, six robberies have occurred, along with four assaults; three domestic batteries; and one battery with a deadly weapon.

Five of the crimes reported to Metro occurred in August, according to police records.

On March 12 Bobby A. Williams, 29 was shot and killed in the mall parking lot shortly after leaving a sporting goods store.

Stansbury said that homicide was gang-related but not gang-motivated, meaning gang members are believed to be responsible but it doesn't appear Williams was a rival gang member. No arrests had been reported in that case as of this morning.

The mall sits in a neighborhood that is known for blight and crime. The Sierra Pointe Apartments at 1064 Sierra Vista Drive, about a block from the mall, has been a problem for years, attracting drug peddlers, gang members and prostitutes, authorities said.

Stansbury said there are "an awful lot of gang members in the area" of the mall. The attacks at the mall aren't believed to be turf-oriented; they appear to be the result of one-on-one confrontations.

Greg Sims, general manager of the mall, said safety is his number one concern.

"Is our mall safe? The mall is like any other public venue," he said. "We have thousands of people coming through the doors every day and we strive to provide the safest shopping environment as possible."

He said mall officials "continue to look at our safety and security measures on an ongoing basis."

Several people who were eating in the mall's food court Wednesday had mixed reactions to the news of the teen's death.

Candice Hodges, a 24-year-old student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said she wasn't scared because the fight seemed like an "isolated event."

"It's sad and scary that it could happen in the middle of a food court at a mall, but I'm not worried it's going to happen to me or anything," Hodges said. "I'd be more worried if they used guns instead of chairs. If they used guns, someone else could have been shot or hurt."

Jennifer Grubbs, 26, also a UNLV student, said: "I'm surprised no one jumped in to help this poor guy. But I guess it would be dangerous to jump in there. You don't know if they have knives or if they'd turn on you."

While she said the mall seemed to have adequate security, "there's only so much you can do in a food court and if a fight breaks out, things happen fast and you can't really stop it that easily if there's a big group of guys going at it."

Randy Homa, 38, of North Las Vegas, said the fatal beating did not frighten him and there probably was no way to prevent it from happening.

"What are you going to do, glue the chairs to the ground?" he said. "I mean, a fight could break out right now as we speak. I don't think something like a fight would stop people from coming here or scare anyone."

Police are urging anyone who witnessed the attack to call 229-3521.