Shooting death of Las Vegas 13-year-old marks highest Metro homicide count in 20 years
The shooting death of a 13-year-old boy Friday — just the second day of December — marked the highest homicide count the Metropolitan Police Department has seen in 20 years.
The highest year-end homicide count in recent memory was in 1996, when Metro’s jurisdiction saw 167 cases. The Friday death of Fabriccio Patti, a Las Vegas eighth-grader who attended Lawrence Junior High School, marked 158 cases within Metro’s jurisdiction so far this year, surpassing the second-highest recent homicide count of 157 set in 2006.
“Everybody’s concerned,” said Metro homicide Lt. Dan McGrath at the scene of Fabriccio’s shooting Friday. “And it should be not just the police’s concern — it’s the whole community’s concern, that we have a rise in violence, specifically gun violence.”
Fabriccio and two other teens were wearing masks when they entered the Lucky Cigars and Smokes shop at 8665 W. Flamingo Road, on the corner of Durango Drive, about 5:20 p.m. Friday, possibly intending to rob the business, police said. A store employee, who has not been identified, fired about five rounds, one of which fatally struck Fabriccio in the head.
The two other teens, who were not identified because of their ages, were arrested soon after the incident, a police spokesman said Monday. They are facing charges of attempted robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary.
The district attorney’s office has not determined whether the employee who fired the fatal shot will face charges.
Fabriccio started attending Lawrence in seventh grade and attended Guinn Middle School in sixth, said David Roddy, a Clark County School District spokesman. A crisis response team will counsel staff and students at Lawrence.
News of Fabriccio’s death spread among middle school students through social media. On Monday afternoon, dozens had changed their names on Instagram to “R.I.P. Fabriccio” and called for Lawrence students to wear red and blue in his memory.
Maria Brangwynne’s daughter found out about Fabriccio’s death on social media, too.
“She didn’t know him, she just knew of him,” said Brangwynne, 41. “She wasn’t in that crowd.”
She said she was glad children at the school had access to counseling, and she said she feels bad for Fabriccio’s mother.
“There’s only so much you can do,” she said. “It makes you wonder if it’s gang initiation thing. … It’s just unfortunate that they get into the wrong groups. That’s why you have to keep a really close eye on them.”
Though it was still unclear Monday whether Fabriccio or the two other teens were armed or demanded money or items Friday, McGrath said 2016 has been “shocking” in terms of seeing juveniles involved in violent crime.
The department has also seen teens arrested on murder charges this year, McGrath had previously said.
Before Patti’s death, at least 16 homicide cases this year involved children, though 10 appeared to be direct results of abuse or neglect, said Sgt. Jerome Milton, with Metro’s abuse and neglect unit. That figure marked a 40 percent increase in child abuse and neglect homicides, Milton said.
At least six homicides so far this year have involved children 5 or younger.
“The biggest trend is we’re getting less people calling us ahead of time to report these things, or report seeing these things happen,” Milton said. “If you see any type of abuse or children being neglected, if you don’t feel comfortable calling police, at least call child protective services.”
In terms of the remaining Metro homicide cases involving adults, many had a criminal nexus, in which the incidents or the players involved could be linked to criminal activity, McGrath said. Most victims and suspects also knew each other.
Separately, he added, at least 30 homicide victims within Metro’s jurisdiction were killed in an act of domestic violence.
“The large majority of our cases are not random,” McGrath said, though he mentioned a few cases that were, like the shooting death of Lee’s Liquor clerk Matthew Christensen in April and the shooting death of security guard Mark Santee at a southwest valley construction site, also in April.
“The numbers are higher, but we’re not trying to create fear for the general public,” McGrath continued. “The homicide section is doing everything we can to solve every case, and we will continue to do that for the rest of this year and into next year.”
Review-Journal writer Rachel Hershkovitz contributed to this report. Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @rachelacrosby on Twitter. Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.
