Tuesday, June 7, 2005 | 11:12 a.m.
Driver forced off road; pedestrian injured
Metro Police are looking for the driver of a white 1-ton pickup truck with dual rear wheels they say was involved in a crash that injured a pedestrian on Decatur Boulevard on Monday.
The pedestrian was identified as Chester Canter, 51, of Las Vegas.
The crash occurred about 11:30 a.m. when the truck made a quick lane change while heading south on Decatur near Deer Springs Way, almost striking a 1993 Suburban, Detective Bob Holland said.
The driver of the Suburban, Melissa Quinonez, 28, of Las Vegas was forced off the road to avoid a collision and hit Canter, who was walking in the desert just off the shoulder of the road, Holland said.
Canter was taken to University Medical Center.
Neither Quinonez nor her 2- and 4-year-old children were injured.
The white pickup truck continued going south without stopping.
Anyone with information about this incident can contact Crime Stoppers at 385-5555 or police at 229-3786.
Construction worker killed
A worker was killed in a construction-related accident on Monday at Donna Street and Hammer Lane in North Las Vegas.
The victim was identified as Davis Antonio Nizzi, 50, of Searchlight.
The accident involved a front-end loader, but Tim Bedwell, spokesman for the North Las Vegas Police, could not provide any details of the incident except to say the payload might have crushed the victim.
He said North Las Vegas responded to the accident before noon and Nevada OSHA was investigating the accident. An OSHA spokesman declined to comment.
Since July 1, 2004 Nevada OSHA has investigated 19 fatalities on local work sites, with 7 of those in the construction trade.
Employers are required to report an incident to OSHA if a worker dies or if three or more workers are injured and hospitalized.
DMV hard drives safe, says expert
A forensic computer specialist with the U.S. Secret Service has determined that the computer hard drives stolen from a North Las Vegas branch of the Department of Motor Vehicles on March 7 had not been accessed.
Paul Masto, assistant special agent in charge of the Secret Service in Las Vegas, said in a news release that the forensics specialist examined the computer hard drives and found no evidence that they had been compromised.
Metro Police recovered the computer hard drives, along with other material that had been stolen from the Donovan Way DMV on March 7, last week after they received an anonymous tip. The police found the stolen DMV equipment boxed up on the roof of a building under construction at Industrial and Warm Springs roads.
"This is a happy ending to what could have been an incredible nightmare," DMV Director Ginny Lewis said in the release.
The stolen computer contained the personal information of almost 9,000 people.
Authorities have not arrested anyone in the burglary.
Man arrested in cab theft case
For the second time in a week, police have arrested a man suspected of stealing a camera-equipped taxicab.
Justin Douglas Roper, a homeless man known by Metro Police patrol officers who work in the area, was identified from a taxi's video camera showing him driving a Whittlesea Cab Co. taxicab about 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning in the 3100 block of South Industrial Road, Nevada Taxicab Authority investigator Rob Stewart said.
The cabdriver had left the cab's motor running while he went inside a convenience store.
The taxicab was found about two hours later. Taxicab Authority investigators saw Roper not only driving the cab, but also rummaging through the driver's personal belongings.
Roper was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on a charge of grand larceny auto.
The first crime investigators solved with help from a cab camera was May 26, when the device taped 37-year-old James Bradley Palen driving a stolen Yellow Checker Star cab.
Man arrested in teen's death
Henderson Police on Friday arrested a 19-year-old man in connection with the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy in a fight outside a house party last month.
Mariano Madrid, who suffered a stab wound in a brawl in the street on Duppel Court near McKenzie Drive, was charged with the death of Ricardo Macias.
The incident took place May 22. The host of the party began kicking people out when too many people showed up unexpectedly, the police report says.
Macias was shot three times. Madrid suffered a stab wound on his forearm, but it's not clear who stabbed him.
Teen killed in mini-bike accident
A 17-year-old Las Vegas teen was killed early Sunday when he fell off his mini-motorcycle and was hit by a pickup truck on Lake Mead Parkway near Warm Springs Road in Henderson, police said.
Joshua Johnson was riding the "pocket bike" in front of a black GMC pickup driven by his friend, Mary Mulligan, 21 when he lost control and swerved into the path of the truck, Officer Todd Rasmussen said.
Mulligan was unable to stop and struck Johnson. He was taken to University Medical Center where he died.
Police were still investigating this morning.
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