Man is shot to death outside Palms

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 | 11:10 a.m.

A man was shot and killed this morning outside the Palms resort after an argument with a rival, the second homicide at the resort since November 2003, Metro Police said.

About 6:15 a.m., the victim and a woman were in the Palms parking lot intending to go inside when they saw a group of at least three people that they recognized, Metro Lt. Tom Monahan said.

"Bad blood" existed between the victim and one of the men in the group, Monahan said.

They got into an argument that escalated, police said. The victim was shot with a handgun and was dead on a sidewalk in front of the property at 4321 W. Flamingo Road near Arville Street.

The dead man's name had not been released this morning. He appeared to be in his late 30s, Monahan said.

The gunman and his associates fled the scene. Detectives believe they know who shot the man but had not yet taken anyone into custody this morning.

"We don't know what caused this confrontation," Monahan said. "We're interviewing the female and we're starting to get a clear picture.

"There's a suggestion it might be prostitution-related."

He declined to say whether the woman with the victim was a prostitute.

Detectives aren't certain if anyone involved was affiliated with gangs. None were hotel guests.

Jim Hughes, general manager of the resort, stressed that the shooting occurred on the sidewalk and not on the Palms' property.

"We've never had an incident in the Palms," he said.

The resort employs "a large, extensive security force," including officers on bicycles and in vehicles. He wasn't able to give exact figures of the number of officers who are on patrol outside at any given time.

"We have a very visible presence outside the property," he said.

Traffic was blocked off in the the curb lane on Flamingo in front of the hotel this morning, causing a slight delay in morning commuter traffic.

Standing outside Las Vegas College, across the street from the Palms, student Kristy Bishop said she didn't witness the shooting but was fascinated by the scene.

"I'd like to actually be in it, seeing everything over there," she said, adding she wants to be a crime scene analyst. "It's scary, but being a criminal justice major it makes you curious."

Detectives are viewing hotel surveillance video tapes, which were a valuable tool in solving the last fatal shooting in the hotel's parking lot.

In that slaying, police said Frederic Dixon, 30, shot 36-year-old Derrick Nunley multiple times through the windows of his car on Nov. 14, 2003.

Dixon drove away after the shooting but returned to tell police he shot Nunley in self-defense. They had an earlier confrontation at a nightclub and met up again at the Palms, police said.

Dixon was found guilty of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon last October and was given a life sentence earlier this year.

Last August, a weekend non-fatal shooting occurred in the resort's parking lot -- a man in a pickup truck fired a rifle at a group of people.

One person was hit but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, police said, noting they had no motive for the shooting and that no arrests were made.

On Feb. 28, 2004, a bizarre incident in the Palms parking lot resulted in a humanitarian act for which three men were honored by police.

A newborn boy, umbilical cord still attached, was found wrapped in a blue blanket under a pickup truck. Three men leaving a movie at the resort followed the sound of the crying baby and contacted security, which found not only the baby but also his mother in a vehicle several cars from where he was found.

The mother later was charged with abandoning the child, police said.

The three men, Richard Louis Callotta, Arthur Esposo and George Raymond Lopez, received certificates of appreciation from Sheriff Bill Young during a June 2004 ceremony at Las Vegas City Hall for actions that police said may have saved the baby's life.