Resident mistakenly shoots another during Las Vegas robbery attempt
One resident accidentally shot and injured another in the confusion of an attempted robbery that led to another man’s death early Monday at a northeast Las Vegas Valley apartment, police said.
About 2:45 a.m. Monday, two men dressed in all black showed up at an apartment on the 2300 block of North Exeter Drive, near East Lake Mead and Hollywood boulevards, Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Jon Scott said. The two men made their way inside the apartment, and one of the residents locked himself in a back bedroom with his wife and small children, police said.
While the man hid in the bedroom with his family, the two suspects robbed two other residents in the apartment’s living room, homicide Lt. Ray Spencer said Tuesday. Police were told Monday that there were three robbers, but Spencer clarified Tuesday that there were only two.
During the robbery, one resident began struggling with a robber over the robber’s gun. The other resident who was in the living room then ran toward the back bedroom, where the family was hiding.
The man inside the bedroom, thinking a robber was approaching, then fired a shotgun through the door, hitting the other resident.
The man with the shotgun then made his way outside the room and saw the third resident struggling with one of the robbers over a gun. The man then shot and killed the robber, identified by the Clark County coroner’s office on Tuesday as 23-year-old Jose Paredef Diaz.
The other robber ran from the apartment before police arrived. Officers found Paredef Diaz dead on the apartment’s porch, and the coroner’s office on Tuesday ruled his death a homicide due to a shotgun wound of the head.
Spencer said that as of Tuesday, the man who shot and killed Paredef Diaz will not face charges. The resident who was accidentally shot was taken to University Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, where he remained Tuesday, Spencer said.
Police on Tuesday were still searching for the second robber.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.