News briefs for Feb. 14, 2005

Monday, Feb. 14, 2005 | 11:07 a.m.

One killed, one hurt in shooting

North Las Vegas Police are investigating the death of one nab and the wounding of another in a shooting about 9 p.m. on Saturday, spokesman Tim Bedwell said.

When police arrived at a house in the 2200 block of McCarran Avenue near Lake Mead and Martin Luther King boulevards, they found an 18-year-old man shot to death.

A 33-year-old man was taken to University Medical Center and is expected to survive, Bedwell said.

Lee ski resort reopens today

The Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort reopened this morning, a little more than a month after a deadly avalanche kept the slopes closed to skiers.

The resort at Lee Canyon in the Mount Charleston area had closed to review findings from a U.S. Forest Service review team that had visited the area after a Jan. 9 avalanche that swept a 13-year-old Las Vegas boy from a ski lift, burying him under a deep snowdrift.

The team later recommended a series of improvements to the resort, in addition to heightened safety training for resort personnel, steps that appear to have been taken, Tim Short, district ranger for the Spring Mountain National Recreation Area, said.

While a definitive cause for the avalanche had not been determined this morning, Short said the review team attributed it to "really unusual weather conditions" caused by a large storm system that swept through California and Nevada that month.

Motorists' fight ends in stabbing

One man was stabbed during a fight between two motorists, Henderson Police said.

A 57-year-old Henderson man driving on Horizon Ridge Drive in a GMC Yukon-Denali got into an altercation with another motorist, traveling the same way on Horizon Ridge in a pickup truck, police said.

Both drivers pulled over to the side of the road near Horizon Ridge and High Mesa, then got out and started arguing on the side of the road, police said.

The 57-year-old man was then stabbed in the neck allegedly by the other man, described as 25 to 35 years old, 6 foot tall, thin with shoulder length brownish-blonde hair. He was wearing blue jeans and a dark hooded sweatshirt.

The man left the area before police arrived.

Blasting caps prompt evacuation

About 30 residents of the Pleasant Valley Mobile Home Community were briefly evacuated Sunday night while the Las Vegas Fire & Rescue bomb squad investigated a report of blasting caps found at a home.

About 10 blasting caps were found, said Bob Leinbach, spokesman for the Clark County Fire Department, which also responded to the call.

Leinbach said a new resident had apparently found the blasting caps in his backyard, brought them inside, and called authorities. The blasting caps were a type used to ignite smoke devices.

"There is some degree of risk there. They're designed to ignite," Leinbach said.

He added, however, that the risk was not determined to be serious.

"I don't think there's any indication they would explode unless they were misused," he said.

Window washer at bank is slain

A man washing windows outside a bank was shot and killed Saturday, Metro Police said.

The man was working outside a bank on the 2200 block of East Tropicana Avenue about 11:30 a.m. when he was approached by another man. The men had a conversation and one pulled a handgun and shot the other, police said.

The shooter then rode away on a bicycle while the victim chased him and eventually collapsed and died in the parking lot, police reported.

Police said the reason for the shooting is unknown. The shooter is described as a man wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt and dark baggy pants.

The coroner's office did not release the victim's name this morning because his family had not been notified.