Gunfire near theaters might be related

Monday, Jan. 17, 2005 | 8:20 a.m.

Metro and North Las Vegas police are investigating whether a shooting at Texas Station was related to gunfire about an hour earlier Friday night at a movie theater near Santa Fe Station.

North Las Vegas Police arrested Jonathan Leon Tolliver, 20, also known as "K-Boose," who was wanted on a federal murder warrant as a suspect in the shooting of Gilbert Henry, who was killed Sept. 13 in the Buena Vista Apartments near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Carey Avenue.

Both Metro and North Las Vegas officers arrived at Texas Station about 10:15 p.m. Friday after reports of gunfire. Police pursued a Mercedes leaving the casino and stopped it near Simmons Avenue and Lake Mead Boulevard.

Police arrested four teenagers for possession of deadly weapons after finding several guns in the car, and Tolliver, who was driving, North Las Vegas Police spokesman Tim Bedwell said.

Further charges could be filed against Tolliver as the result of the shooting, Bedwell said.

Two victims of the gunfire went to University Medical Center with nonlife-threatening injuries, Bedwell said. Friends of the victims drove them to the hospital.

Metro Police on Thursday had warned Rancho Santa Fe theater owners that "Coach Carter," starring Samuel L. Jackson as a Northern California high school basketball coach who benched his undefeated team in 1999 because some of his players weren't performing in the classroom, might attract a problematic crowd.

Metro earlier cleared several hundred young people from the Century Rancho Santa Fe movie theater after a gun was fired in the parking lot and a fight broke out inside the theater, police said.

No one was hurt during the incident, which occurred about 9 p.m. near the intersection of Rancho Drive and Rainbow Boulevard.