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Baby among 9 people killed in violent week in Las Vegas Valley

Last week, Belinda Jackson held her son in her arms and begged him to breathe as he lay bleeding in a North Las Vegas street.

But DeAndre Harris, 31, wouldn’t survive the gunshot wound to his abdomen. He was one of nine people killed in the past week in the Las Vegas Valley.

“My son was my everything,” Jackson, 56, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday. “Some days I just feel so numb.”

The violent week pushed the number of homicides investigated this year in Clark County past the number of killings investigated in all of 2019, according to Review-Journal records.

Law enforcement officials have investigated 147 homicides this year in the county, according to Review-Journal records, which include self-defense killings, fatal police shootings and in-custody deaths that have been ruled homicides.

That’s two more homicides than the 145 investigated last year. Numbers for the Metropolitan Police Department also have surpassed 2019’s total, as 114 homicides have been investigated by the agency this year — four more than in all of 2019, according to Review-Journal records.

Young victim

The violent week started about 3:45 a.m. Saturday, when a woman called police to report that her fiance threw their infant daughter off a balcony at the Positano Apartments, 10115 Jeffreys St.

The baby, identified by the Clark County coroner’s office as London Martin, was thrown 22 feet to her death, according to an arrest report for her father, Clarence Martin Jr.

London would have turned 2 months old on Monday.

Martin also set fire to the living room, killing his family’s poodle, the report said. He crashed his car at least three times during a chase that ended at McCarran International Airport, where he was arrested, according to the report.

The baby’s mother, Nicole Poole, told police that her fiance had a history of “mental issues” and had not eaten or slept in the days leading up to his arrest, the report said.

About 1:50 p.m., North Las Vegas Police Department officers were called to the 4500 block of Whelk Place, near Craig Road and Allen Lane, where they found Harris suffering from a gunshot wound. He died at University Medical Center.

Harris’ mother said her friend’s son, Kelvis Bryant, is suspected of shooting Harris due to an argument. Court records show that Bryant has been arrested and charged with murder with a deadly weapon and being a felon in possession of a gun.

Harris was a truck driver who loved to read and dreamed of working in sports management, Jackson said.

“He’s always telling me, ‘Mom I’m going to make you real proud of me,’” Jackson said. “I’m like, ‘I’m already proud of you, DeAndre.’”

About 4½ hours later, Las Vegas police were called to an east valley apartment complex after Marcus Dumpson, 31, was shot and killed. His neighbor, 34-year-old Toalian Banks, was arrested Monday. Dumpson and Banks had an ongoing dispute over a barking dog at their apartment complex, Metro said.

Sunday morning, Michelle “Shelli” DiCesare Weissman, 56, was bicycling when 20-year-old Giovanni Medina Barajas leaned out a car and intentionally knocked her to the ground, killing her, police said.

Medina Barajas also died at the scene, near Hollywood Boulevard and Sahara Avenue, when he fell from the car. The driver, 22-year-old Rodrigo Cruz, was arrested and charged with murder.

During a news briefing on Sunday, Metro homicide Lt. Ray Spencer called the deaths “senseless.”

“There’s no reason behind, that I can tell you, as to why it occurred — other than complete stupidity,” he said.

‘Beacon of light’

At a vigil for Weissman on Thursday night, the 56-year-old woman’s husband, Lonny, described his wife as a “beacon of light” and said her death was “100 percent avoidable.”

About twelve hours after Weissman was killed, 31-year-old Ciro Vasquez Jr., an Army veteran and employee at the Taqueria del Paisano restaurant, was fatally stabbed after escorting a homeless man out of the taco shop. Vasquez’s cousin told the Review-Journal that Vasquez had been friendly with the suspect, 29-year-old Angel Martinez, but the northeast Las Vegas business had problems with Martinez in the past.

While Monday was quiet for homicide detectives in the valley, Las Vegas police received an anonymous 911 call at about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday that a body was in a room at the City View Apartments, 3355 Arville St.

When officers arrived, they found the body of 34-year-old Anthony King, who had been fatally stabbed. No suspects or motive in King’s death had been identified as of Wednesday, police said.

Tuesday night, Las Vegas police shot and killed 34-year-old Maurice Parker at a convenience store on the 2500 block of Pecos Road, near Carey Avenue.

Police were investigating the possibility that a suspect in a shooting from earlier in the day worked at the convenience store, Metro Capt. Sasha Larkin said. After entering the store, police told Parker to put his hands in the air, but officers shot him after he “reached for a handgun he had in his waistband,” she said.

The next morning, a man shot his wife and then himself during a barricade situation near East Flamingo Road and U.S. Highway 95, police said. While speaking with a SWAT team and crisis negotiators, the man refused to let his wife leave the home, and once police entered, both were suffering from gunshot wounds. The coroner’s office had not identified them as of Thursday afternoon.

Police were called to another shooting about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, about three hours after the murder-suicide. Bobby Driver, 19, was killed during a marijuana deal on the 2000 block of Nellis Boulevard, near Lake Mead Boulevard, Metro said.

Driver had an AR-style rifle and shot one man in the head before another man fired at Driver, killing him, police said. The man who was shot in the head was in critical condition as of Wednesday morning.

Anyone with information on the Las Vegas cases may contact Metro at 702-828-3521 or, to remain anonymous, Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555. North Las Vegas police may be contacted at 702-633-9111.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.

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