Friday, April 29, 2005 | 11:01 a.m.
A woman was killed early today on Interstate 15 near Charleston Boulevard when someone apparently pulled alongside her and fired several rounds into the driver's side of the car she was driving, Metro Police and Nevada Highway Patrol said.
The incident, which snarled early morning commuter traffic for several hours, occurred shortly before 5 a.m. in the southbound lanes about 450 yards south of the Spaghetti Bowl.
"The shots went through the driver's side window and she lost control (of her car) and went into the wall," Metro Sgt. Mike Thompson said.
Authorities said this morning that they did not yet know whether the shooting was a case of extreme road rage, a random act or stemmed from some previous association between the dead woman and her killer.
"We are in the very early stages of the investigation, and it would be premature to speculate," Thompson said.
The dead woman was the only one in the vehicle, a late model black Chrysler, that skidded along the median wall and came to rest across from the rear of a Walker Furniture store.
Highway Patrol Trooper Angie Chavera said Highway Patrol got a call about what appeared to be an accident at 4:40 a.m. today.
"The trooper on scene requested Metro's assistance because it appeared a shooting had taken place," Chavera said.
Highway Patrol shut down the inside lane on southbound I-15 at 4:45 a.m. and it was expected to remain closed until about 11 a.m.
Metro Police at 7 a.m. asked Highway Patrol to shut down the northbound fast lane so it could widen its sphere of the crime scene investigation under safe conditions, Chavera said. The northbound fast lane was reopened at 8 a.m.
While traffic was snarled -- bumper-to-bumper and slow -- it was like almost any other weekday morning commute, Chavera said, noting "unfortunately, we get accidents around that same location almost every morning. (Today) there was a continuous flow" in the open lanes.
Prior to the arrival of police, Thompson said Las Vegas Fire Department rescue units broke out the back window of the vehicle to get to the woman, who was dead at the scene. Police said the woman appeared to be older than 30. The woman's identity was being withheld pending notification of relatives.
Thompson said the woman had been shot in the head but he would not speculate as to what type of gun was used.
He said several rounds had been fired. The call to Highway Patrol was made by a highway worker who was picking up cones along the road when he saw the Chrysler veer into the southbound median barrier.
Thompson said that highway traffic around 5 a.m. generally is busy enough so that there likely is "more than one witness" who may have seen something that will give police the leads they need to solve this case.
Given that the woman was shot through the driver's side of her car, the other vehicle would have had to dart by her to avoid being hit on its passenger's side by the woman's vehicle as it veered into the barrier.
Anyone who might have witnessed something like that, or anything else in the area between 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. today, is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555 or Metro Homicide at 229-3521.
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