Report: Man who fired shots in air at Las Vegas bus stop was mad at friend
The man who police say fired rounds in the air at a Las Vegas bus stop while in possession of methamphetamine told police he shot the handgun because he was angry over being “disrespected by a friend” and that friend’s treatment of women.
Just after 10 p.m. Monday, officers from the Metropolitan Police Department responded to the sounds of gunfire at a bus stop near Maryland Parkway and Flamingo Road.
Patrol officers in the area heard the gunshots and upon arrival saw passengers running from a bus, Metro spokeswoman Laura Meltzer said.
Officers also saw a man on the bus with a handgun.
Derrick Vincent was standing inside the bus, and when police ordered him to drop his weapon, he threw the gun — later identified as a nine-round .22 caliber revolver — off the bus and in front of the bus stop, the arrest report said.
At the same time, people were running “off the bus and from the bus stop yelling and screaming,” the arrest report said.
Police said they recovered two .22 caliber rounds— one silver, one gold— from Vincent, as well as a “baggy of a white crystal like substance,” which field tests revealed to be 2.4 grams of meth, the report said.
The bus driver, identified as Poe Chong Wong, told police that he saw Vincent standing outside the bus while firing the gun into the air, the arrest report said. Vincent then entered the bus and walked to the back, according to Wong, who also told police he did not hear Vincent “make any threatening statements.”
Wong told police that he kept the bus doors open so that passengers could escape and to “make sure no one would be injured,” the report said.
Police could not locate any damage to the bus as a result of the gunfire, the report said.
When police recovered the revolver, it contained five spent shell casings and four live rounds, police said.
According to the arrest report, Vincent requested to be taken to the hospital. He was taken to University Medical Center and seen by hospital staff before being booked into Clark County Detention Center.
Metro spokesman Larry Hadfield said Vincent was not suspected of being impaired, and a toxicology report was not requested “due to the arrest circumstances.” It was unclear why Vincent requested to be taken to the hospital.
Vincent was booked into the detention center on seven felony charges, including one count of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, one count of possession of a controlled substance, and five counts of discharging a firearm where persons could be injured.
When detectives interviewed Vincent after reading him his Miranda rights, Vincent said he fired the gun because he was “mad” after “being disrespected by a friend of his from Chicago,” according to the arrest report. He said an argument had occurred over “how his friend treated females,” the report said.
Contact Christian Bertolaccini at cbertolaccini@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0381. Follow @bertolaccinic on Twitter.
