Man arrested on suspicion of fatal shooting in east Las Vegas
An Arizona man was found shot to death last week inside what Las Vegas police are calling a flophouse in the eastern valley, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has learned.
Police on Tuesday arrested 32-year-old Derek Alton Shapiro on suspicion of murder in connection with the homicide early Friday, Clark County booking logs and jail records show.
Shortly after midnight Friday, a person came home to find his roommate, Michael Thomas Martel, of Yuma, Arizona, dead at 3448 Villa Way, near South Pecos Road and East Tropicana Avenue. Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Laura Meltzer said the house appeared to be a flophouse, where people are known to come and go on a frequent basis.
The 31-year-old man died of multiple gunshot wounds, the Clark County coroner’s office said Wednesday.
Details surrounding the shooting were not immediately available, and it was not immediately clear whether Shapiro also was living at the Villa Way residence.
Court records show that Shapiro has a criminal history in the county dating back to at least 2011 for charges ranging from battery, drug possession and coercion.
Shapiro is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center on one count of murder with a deadly weapon. His 72-hour hearing for the murder case is scheduled for Thursday morning, according to jail records.
Martel’s killing was the 168th homicide in the county and Metro’s 133rd homicide investigation this year, records maintained by the Review-Journal show.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.
