Painful memories rekindled

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 | 9:18 a.m.

When Jerri Vevers saw Monday morning that a young man had been fatally shot at Maslow Park, across the street from her house, it brought back painful memories.

In October 2001, her daughter's friend, 9-year-old Hector Perez, was an innocent bystander who was accidentally killed during a gang-related, drive-by shooting at the park near Nellis Boulevard and Harmon Avenue.

Her daughter had been in the park with Hector moments before the shooting.

"It's disturbing," Vevers said Monday afternoon. "When he (Perez) was shot it was very rough. She said she knew right away that it was Hector because she saw his red shirt. This morning she said that it did bring memories back."

About 6:30 a.m. Monday, two Chaparral High School students spotted the victim in the parking lot of the park, a few feet from the sidewalk and clearly visible to several dozen homes across the street on Pancho Villa Drive.

The victim was face down on the pavement. Police said he was shot once in the side of the face.

Investigators aren't certain how long the victim was there before he was found.

Vevers and her mother-in-law, Mary Ann Acosta, who lives four houses down on Pancho Villa, discussed the slaying at Vevers' kitchen table.

"I heard a gunshot with Hector," Vevers said. "I didn't hear anything last night or this morning."

"Nobody heard anything," Acosta agreed. "They could have had a silencer."

"We look out for our neighbors, or at least we try to," Acosta said.

Both women said they doubted the victim or shooter lived in the neighborhood. Acosta said she heard gang members from California were involved. Police declined to comment.

The victim's name has not yet been released.

Hector Perez's homicide brought outrage to the neighborhood, an older section of southeast Las Vegas not far from the busy Sam's Town on Boulder Highway.

Perez was in the park with about 15 other children ranging in age from 2 to 19 when a Dodge Neon passed by in the parking lot, then came back and someone inside fired several shots.

The children scattered, but Hector was hit in the chest. He was pronounced dead at University Medical Center.

Neighbors urged county officials to rename the park for the boy, and it was considered, but officials decided to keep the original name to honor an early developer.

Instead a memorial was erected near the spot where Hector died, behind a baseball field backstop near a set of bleachers.

Sofia Pina, 14, was on her front porch Monday keeping an eye on her younger siblings and other neighborhood children.

Although her family moved into their house across the street last year, they had heard about Hector's death. She said she often lets the younger kids play alone in the park, a favorite spot for children in the area because it has a pool and playground as well as the ball field.

But in light of Monday morning's discovery, Pina plans to check on the children in the park more often.

"I didn't think this was a bad neighborhood, but with what happened, I don't know anymore," she said. "I think it's really scary. It really surprised me."

Her 13-year-old sister, Maria Pina, added, "Who knows who will be next?"

Shirley Hemphill, who has lived down the street from the park on Lana Avenue since 1984, said in the late 1980s the park had a reputation as a hangout for drug dealers and users.

In November 2001 the county invested about $780,000 in replacing equipment and refurbishing the 9-acre park, but she said recently she has spotted spray painted graffiti in the park.

"I wish this sort of thing wouldn't happen out this way," Hemphill said. "It makes me a little nervous, but I own my house and I have no intention of moving."