Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Resident describes gunshots in slayings

Noha Kingham was sitting in her garage smoking a late-night cigarette when a series of gunshots pierced the silence of her Southern Highlands neighborhood.

Although her husband and a house guest told her not to get involved, the "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" fan called 911.

"I thought there might be somebody who needed help," Kingham, a 31-year-old stay-at-home mother, said.

She told the responding Metro Police officer what she heard and then waited up for another hour to see if she would hear ambulance sirens.

"I thought that he would come back and tell me there was no shooting, or let me know what happened," Kingham said. "I care that much to know."

The sounds never came. Police searched her neighborhood and couldn't find any evidence of a shooting and marked the call unfounded, according to police records.

It wasn't until 4 a.m., three hours after Kingham's call, when police realized her call had substance -- Southern Highlands security guards found two men shot to death a few streets away.

An officer came to her home to ask more questions about the shots she heard, then told Kingham that what she heard was a double homicide.

"I screamed," she said. "I said, 'Are you serious?'th"

Southern Highlands security officers patrolling the area had spotted a car with its headlights on parked on Ivy Creek Court, about a quarter of a mile from Kingham's home.

The street, which is not part of Southern Highlands, is lined with partially-built homes and nobody should have been on the street, Homicide Lt. Tom Monahan said.

One man was found dead inside a blue Toyota Tercel with California plates and the other was on the ground at the passenger side.

No one was seen fleeing from the area and police don't have any suspects or a motive.

Kingham said she was frustrated that the victims weren't immediately discovered and said she was disappointed in how police handled her call.

"I was hoping the cops would find them, that's why I called," she said. "I'm not saying they're bad, but they need to be better."

Monahan said the sound of the shots could have echoed off the nearby hills, making the source of the noise difficult to pinpoint.

Chris Blakes lives within sight of where the men were gunned down. He said his father, visiting him at his new home of three months was awakened by the sound of gunfire.

"My dad heard the gunshots," Blakes said. "He heard a lot."

Blakes later learned what had happened on the dead-end street and wondered why it happened in his neighborhood.

"It made no sense," he said. "I figure it was some type of deal gone bad. Somebody had to have picked that place out."

Neighbor Ronald Harris said a double homicide was the last thing he expected in the community of new two-story homes.

"There's a lot of nice people. I know my neighbors. It seems like a homey neighborhood and then this happens," Harris said. "You pay a lot to live out here for a reason, to be away from all the commotion and nonsense."

Neighbors said police told them they recovered at the site more than 36 shell casings from a suspected AK47 assault rifle.

Blood and shattered glass remained Monday evening in the driveway where the men were found dead. More than a half dozen bullet holes pockmarked a garage door; there were divots in the concrete.

Kingham, who has lived in Las Vegas since January 2002, said she couldn't get over the fact that nobody else called 911. Police logs show that Kingham's call was the only one reporting a shooting in Southern Highlands around the time she heard the noise.

"I'm blaming society itself too," she said. "Why didn't anybody else care?"

Kingham and her family moved to Southern Highlands, thinking it was a peaceful place to live, but the shooting has shattered that opinion. She said the experience has made her want to move to escape the memory.

"When it comes to death, it just shocks me," she said.

Sun reporter

Eric Leake contributed to this story.

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