Neighbors worried after guard shot to death

Jennifer Knight

Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004 | 11:16 a.m.

Two bundles of flowers lay on a dead spot of grass Wednesday in a West Las Vegas apartment complex where a 29-year-old security guard was gunned down the previous night.

The fatal shooting occurred about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Sherman Annex apartments at 1710 H St., a Las Vegas Housing Authority property, and residents and a Housing Authority commissioner are outraged over the killing of Brian L. Wilcox of Henderson. They said it points to how dangerous the area is.

Several residents who live near the scene of the shooting said they were scared to say much about it.

"I heard the shots but I didn't see anything," said Elliot Lockett, whose door was just steps away from the shooting.

"I know somebody got shot but I didn't know somebody was killed right here," said a woman who would give her name only as Tina and who lives just five feet away from where the officer died. "The type of neighborhood this is, it's not like you can tell people what happened if you saw something. I didn't see anything though."

Just prior to the shooting, Wilcox and another guard had confronted a group of young men who had previously been banned from the property, according to Metro Police Lt. Tom Monahan.

Monahan said when guards came upon the group of young men on Tuesday, they decided to leave the area until more help could arrive.

"The security guards decided not to push the issue, so the two of them pedaled off on their bicycles," Monahan said. "Next thing you know, shots were fired."

At least one round hit Wilcox. He was taken to University Medical Center, where he died, Monahan said.

Police don't consider the murder to be gang-related but the suspects likely had gang ties, Monahan said.

Monahan said this morning that police have made progress on the case but had not arrested anyone.

Residents say that problems in the rundown low-income housing complex have been building for some time. One woman said people can't even hang laundry out to dry without fear of being robbed.

"I just basically stay in the house and keep my door locked," Lockett said.

Resident Lorrie Martin recalled another run-in that guards dealt with recently, pointing to gouges in the rock wall outside of her apartment.

"There have been problems with security guards before," Martin said. "A bunch of kids were throwing rocks at them. That's why the side of this wall is all messed up."

Resident Connie Turner disputed police reports that said Wilcox was with at least one other guard when the youths began shooting.

"There was only one guard over here," Connie Turner said. "I saw the whole thing. He was by himself."

Pointing to a spot in the courtyard just a few feet away where Wilcox was shot, Turner said, "He stood right there and talked on his walkie-talkie. I seen one (shooter) go one way and I seen two guys run that way. The other security guards didn't move. They were on the other side of that building."

Turner said typically three armed security guards patrol the complex together but no one came immediately to Wilcox's aid when the first shot went off.

Housing Authority Commissioner Beatrice Turner was outraged by the shooting.

"There's supposed to be three officers at all times," Beatrice Turner said. "When he got shot, why was he by himself? That's my question.

Monahan disagreed with accounts that had Wilcox alone without backup.

"All the evidence is completely contradictory to that," he said.

Beatrice Turner said residents had been complaining for some time that the area was under-patrolled and that no one felt safe.

Housing Authority officials said they had assigned three officers to patrol three large housing complexes in the area but the guards recently added a fourth complex to their beat and that may have stretched them too thin.

During the nearly one hour while Beatrice Turner was interviewed Wednesday night at the housing complex on H Street, no guards passed by.

Sheila Davis, who sits on the Sherman Garden, Villa Carpi, Sherman Annex Resident Council, a board that fields resident concerns, said she hopes the incident serves as a wake-up call to the Housing Authority Board.

"It took a death for everyone to come out here," Davis said. "It's sad. Why does someone have to die before people get involved?"