Police say man threw 2-month-old from 2nd floor
A man is accused of throwing his 2-month-old daughter from an apartment complex balcony, killing the infant during a domestic disturbance in southeast Las Vegas early Saturday morning, police said.
About 3:45 a.m., a woman called 911 to report that her infant had been “thrown off of a balcony,” Metropolitan Police Department homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said Saturday.
The baby’s father, who was later identified as 32-year-old Clarence Martin Jr., was later arrested after allegedly lighting the apartment on fire, fleeing and being involved in two crashes, according to a statement from Metro Saturday evening.
When police arrived at the apartment complex at 10115 Jeffreys St., near South Eastern Avenue and St. Rose Parkway, “they found the mother holding the child in a parking lot,” Spencer said. The infant girl was taken to St. Rose Hospital and Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Detectives believe the man and woman were involved in a “domestic disturbance” in the apartment, and the father “grabbed the child from the mother, walked outside and threw the baby from the second story balcony onto the asphalt below,” Spencer said.
Before police arrived, the man allegedly lit the apartment on fire. Detectives believe the family dog died in the fire, Spencer said.
He then drove away and was involved in a hit-and-run crash “directly in front of the apartment complex,” Spencer said.
The man was then involved in a second crash, a rollover, on the 215 Beltway at the McCarran International Airport connector, Spencer said.
He fled from the second crash and abandoned his car near the airport, police said. After a chase inside the airport, he was arrested, Spencer said.
The man was taken to University Medical Center for treatment of injuries from the crashes and for evaluation of narcotics use. He was booked in absentia for open murder, animal cruelty and arson.
It was unclear whether anyone else was injured in the two crashes. The baby will be identified by the Clark County coroner’s office.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter. Review-Journal digital content producer Tony Garcia contributed to this report.
