2 dead, 1 wounded in east Las Vegas shootout — VIDEO
A man and a woman died after a shootout erupted in a quiet east valley neighborhood Thursday afternoon.
Las Vegas police officers were called shortly after 12:40 p.m. to a “domestic disturbance” in front of a home on the 3200 block of Silver Saddle Street, near South Eastern Avenue and East Desert Inn Road, Metropolitan Police Department homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said.
They arrived to find two men and a woman with gunshot wounds outside. All three were taken to a hospital, but two died.
One of the men, who was shot in the arm, had survivable injuries, he said.
Spencer said the call originated with a man and a woman who were arguing in a car with California plates. A small child was in the car, which suddenly pulled over at a random house in the neighborhood.
At the time, two men who lived at the home were sitting in the driveway, Spencer said. One was giving the other a haircut when the man and woman hopped out of the car, and the woman handed them the toddler, who is about 18 months old.
Outside the car, the argument escalated, Spencer said. The pair of men held back the child, but at one point the toddler broke away, running over to the mother. The mother shuffled the child back to the men as the argument continued, and the man she was arguing with pulled out a handgun.
At one point, one of the men went into the home and came back outside armed with a rifle, apparently to defend the woman, Spencer said.
The man arguing with the woman then shot her, Spencer said. He also shot the man in the driveway who was not armed with the rifle, hitting him in the shoulder.
Spencer said the man with a rifle then fired at the man with the handgun.
The man with the handgun and the woman died after being taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, Spencer said. The woman also had injuries to her neck, and investigators were working to determine if she had also been stabbed.
The child was not injured and is in the custody of Child Protective Services.
It remains unclear if the man who was arguing with the woman died from a self-inflicted gunshot or from a rifle round. Detectives do not expect the man who fired the rifle to face charges in the shooting, Spencer said.
Police have yet to identify the deceased man and woman, and have not confirmed their relationship to each other or to the child.
“We are assuming that (she’s) the mother of the child,” Spencer said, adding that the two adults appeared to have “some type of domestic relationship.”
Portions of the neighborhood were blocked off with police tape late Thursday afternoon as detectives continued to investigate.
The shooting marked the Metro’s 34th homicide investigation this year, according to Review-Journal records.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Rio Lacanlale contributed to this report.
