Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Nikki Villoria
County Commissioner Tom Collins sits in his western-themed office.
Published Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012 | 11:11 a.m.
Updated Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012 | 2:07 p.m.
In the late hours of July 3, Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins was in the backyard at his North Las Vegas home, using a chainsaw to cut down a large salt cedar tree. Music blared from his white Ford pickup truck with personalized “#TBARK” license plates.
According to police reports released Wednesday morning, though, Collins also had been drinking alcoholic beverages and had admitted he had become mad at the tree and had fired gunshots into it and a nearby post.
Citing the need for consistency in the city’s stance on illegal gunfire, North Las Vegas City Attorney Jeffrey Barr on Wednesday charged Collins, 62, with one count of discharging a firearm within the city limits and one count of disturbing the peace. Barr announced the charges in a news release Wednesday morning.
Collins’ arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 24 in North Las Vegas Municipal Court.
North Las Vegas Police initially forwarded the case to Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson for review. Wolfson, though, citing potential conflict of interest, last month turned over the case for review to the state Attorney General’s Office. The district attorney is elected but the county commission sets department’s budget.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Thom Gover earlier this month said there was not enough evidence to present a gross misdemeanor case against Collins, who has been a county commissioner since 2005.
The North Las Vegas Police Department then forwarded the case to the City Attorney’s Office and requested the lesser misdemeanor charges.
“We have consistently prosecuted this type of case because of the serious risk illegal shooting poses to the citizens of our community,” Barr said on his decision to file charges. He cited the city’s decade-long campaign to educate the public and enforce the policy on illegal gunfire.
A phone message was left with Collins seeking comment.
According to police reports, two witnesses approached police that night and said they had heard two gunshots about 10:30 p.m. and five more shots about 20 to 30 minutes later, all coming from the backyard of the house in the 4200 block of North Decatur. One of the witnesses said she was positive the noise was gunfire because she had seen the muzzle flash of a firearm. They also identified the homeowner as Collins.
Officers approaching the residence heard music and a running chainsaw. One officer who jumped on the wall around the yard spotted Collins walking away from a salt cedar tree that had just been cut.
Collins then entered his truck and drove through the backyard before heading toward the officers on the other side of the wall, according to the report. When the truck stopped running, one of the officers ordered Collins to leave the truck and put his hands up.
Officers then handcuffed Collins and told him there had been reports of a gun being fired in his backyard. After being read his Miranda rights, Collins told police, “Yes, I will speak with you.”
“I then spoke with Collins, who had been drinking alcoholic beverages, and he told me the following,” Officer Noah Bennett wrote in his report. “Collins was mad at his tree so he took his firearm out of the truck and began to shoot at the tree and a post in his backyard. Collins stopped talking at this point and he advised that he wanted to take back that statement at this time.”
Collins confirmed to police that he had firearms in his truck, the report said. Officers found a black .40 caliber automatic Sig Sauer in the glove box and removed eight live rounds of ammunition from its magazine.
The officers took the weapon as evidence, and also called in a crime scene investigator to collect evidence. Officers also found three spent casings, empty Coors beer cans and an empty whiskey bottle scattered around the backyard.
Since the firearm was not discharged in an officer’s presence and witnesses had refused to sign a criminal complaint, Collins was release at the scene, the report said.
If convicted on the misdemeanor charges, Collins faces a maximum penalty of $1,000 and/or six months in jail on each charge, Barr said.
Collins, a Democrat, is seeking a third term on the Clark County Commission and faces former Clark County School Board member Ruth Johnson, a Republican, and Independent American Warren Markowitz on the November ballot.
steve wolfson is a weak ineffective cowardly district attorney...
we know that because he failed to charge the henderson cops after they kicked the snot out of that innocent civilian...
catherine cortez masto does more harm than good...
we know that because she has single handedly destroyed the foreclosure process which must take place for the real estate market to finally reach bottom...
mind you...
biride is a proud liberal democrat...
now...
mr barr...
to you sir...
i say...
bravo!!!
imho...
tom collins is an old fool...
who loves to celebrate his foolishness...
time for tommy...
to ride off into the sunset...
Thank you Mr. Barr for having the courage to do what is right.
Collins! You are a Democrat! Why are you drinking a Republican beer?
Shame on you!
Thank you Mr. Barr. Collins is an embarrassment to this community.
I really wish people would stop voting for these clowns.
Mad at his tree? That is insane!
Mad at his tree? Shows you what we are dealing with. Total embarrassment. Who the hell voted for this guy??!!
and this is the same case in which the Nevada Attorney General refused to prosecute due to Lack of Evidence? Sounds like complicity to me......
Mad at his tree? That's understandable. I used to get mad at the trees around my house too. Especially in the winter. Sometimes I'd be walking by them and branch would hit me in the ear. Man, that hurt. But, I was young then and didn't have much money to buy ammunition so I spared the trees the rathe of my anger. So, I can understand how Tom felt, especially after having probably more than a few beers. The tree most likely didn't want to talk to him.
Salt Cedar is an invasive species of plant that scientists have been trying to remove from Southern Nevada for years. Tom Collins was obviously employing a new method that no one had tried yet: If we can't eradicate the trees, perhaps we can scare them off by shooting at them. That'll learn 'em!
I hope Mel Brooks is taking notes for a sequel to "High Anxiety". Or is this FrankenReid's monster?
Anyhoo...he owes salt cedars world wide an apology for this act of domestic treerorism.
Didn't the drinking record of Mr Collins appear in his campaign against Sheri Buck for Mayor of NLV? I recall this as the source of their bitter feud.
A lot of voters simply vote name recognition so this type can hustle in on that. Halverson ring any bells?
Maybe he needs to drink Tom Collins' instead of beer. The fool is lucky the gunshot didn't ricochet and hit an artery.
Wasn't he asked about this incident a while back and he gave some vague answer about "people like to celebrate the 4th" or something like that? So not only is this guy a reckless dumbass, he also can't just tell the truth. I should have guessed, he's a politician. They don't know what truth is.
What a dope. Sounds like he isn't responsible enough to own a gun.
Why couldn't the police arrest him for drunk driving once he drove around the block wall?
Oh, and I'm sure his neighbors were absolutely thrilled with the loud music and chainsaw action going on at 10:30 p.m.
Trees can get on your nerves if you let them.
How to Get Rid of Tree Shooters
Trees shooters grow in lawns, gardens, between concrete slabs, and in North Las Vegas.
Tree shooters, also know as tree shoots, are pesky and annoying invasive tiny new trees or drunks that pop up in your lawn. They come from seeds that fall from local trees and are blown in by the wind or carried in by local wildlife. Many have been infected by republicans.
Spraying herbicide on them will work, as long as the shooter is not surrounded by other plants. Spraying it on a shooter in a lawn or garden will not work, because that will kill not only the tree shooter but also the plant life around it. The best way to remove shooteers is to pull them out of the ground. Does this Spark an idea?
Read more: How to Get Rid of Tree Shooters | TomCollins.com
This message was not authorized by Willard Romney
Invader trees are sucking the life of our water supply. Any drunk Cowboy would naturally want to protect his state with all available weapons.
CSI plot line
C'mon people! You all know how difficult it is to deal with a misbehaving tree, especially when you're distracted by celebrating a National Holiday. What choice did the commish have, but to impose the death penalty?
The tree just had some different political views than Collins and since the tree made more sense than Tommy his only option was the make my day law.
Assuming he has a concealed weapons permit; if found guilty, will it be revoked?
Well Tom, Don't take your chainsaw to town!