Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Under cover of darkness, suspect in Strip shooting returned to Las Vegas

Ammar Harris

Metro Police

Ammar Harris is brought to the Clark County Detention Center on April 16, 2013, to be booked on charges related to a shooting and fiery crash on the Las Vegas Strip in which three people were killed Feb. 21, 2013.

Updated Tuesday, April 16, 2013 | 11:05 a.m.

Strip shooting crash

Smoke and flames billow from a burning vehicle following a shooting and multicar accident on the Las Vegas Strip early Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. Launch slideshow »

Ammar Harris Back in Las Vegas

Ammar Harris is brought to the Clark County Detention Center on April 16, 2013, to be booked on charges related to a shooting and fiery crash on the Las Vegas Strip in which three people were killed Feb. 21, 2013. Launch slideshow »

The man thought to be behind the Feb. 21 shooting on the Strip that sparked a fiery crash and led to the deaths of three people is back in Las Vegas.

Metro Police confirmed that Ammar Harris, 27, was booked Tuesday morning into the Clark County Detention Center after being transported by authorities overnight from Los Angeles.

According to a Metro news release, authorities became aware that Harris was contemplating attempts to escape, and measures were put in place to ensure he did not break free. He was extradited without incident, police said.

After a weeklong, nationwide manhunt in the wake of the Strip shooting, Harris was found Feb. 28 at an apartment complex in Studio City, Calif., where Los Angeles Police Department officers and FBI agents arrested him. He had remained in the Los Angeles County Jail since then, fighting attempts to extradite him to Nevada. Last week, the offices of Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada and Jerry Brown of California completed paperwork on Harris’ extradition.

Harris faces three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, plus counts of discharging a firearm into a vehicle and discharging a firearm out of a vehicle, according to a criminal complaint filed by Clark County prosecutors. The murder charges ultimately may be changed to capital murder, prosecutors indicated shortly after Harris’ arrest.

Harris had been identified by Metro as the person who fired gunshots from a Range Rover into a Maserati sports car in the early-morning hours of Feb. 21 as the vehicles made their way up the Las Vegas Strip.

Kenneth Cherry Jr., the driver of the Maserati, and a passenger were hit in the shooting. Cherry’s wounds caused him to lose control of the car, which ran a red light at Flamingo Road and crashed into a taxi.

The impact triggered an explosion in the cab. Three people were killed: Cherry; the cab driver, Michael Boldon, 62, of Las Vegas; and cab passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, a businesswoman from Maple Valley, Wash. The criminal complaint filed against Harris identified the passenger who survived as Freddy Walters.

Harris is being held without bond and is scheduled to be arraigned at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday in Las Vegas Township Justice Court.

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