Metro arrests robbery suspect after car crash near Las Vegas Strip
Las Vegas police arrested a man they said shot at a police car during a chase they said started with a suspected convenience store robbery and ended in a crash on the Strip on Friday morning.
The incident began about 3 a.m., when officers responded to a report of an armed robbery at a 7-Eleven in the 3600 block of Maryland Parkway near Twain Avenue, the Metropolitan Police Department said.
Inside the convenience store, the 23-year-old suspect, Lawrence Manriquez, fired one gunshot into the ceiling and demanded money from the register, Metro Lt. Glen Lowe said. The store’s two clerks opened the register and lay on the floor as Manriquez jumped onto the counter and grabbed cash, police said. The suspect then took one clerk’s wallet and left.
Two patrons who saw the incident called 911, police said. Manriquez drove away from the scene in a tan Chevy Tahoe as a police helicopter pursued, police said.
A Metro patrol officer saw the suspect’s vehicle driving west on Twain Avenue at high speed and followed. Police said Manriquez pointed his handgun outside of the driver’s seat window and fired twice, striking the patrol car once. The officer in the car was uninjured and didn’t return fire, police said.
Manriquez, pursued by the squad car and helicopter, crashed his Chevy into landscaping on Sands Avenue, abandoned the vehicle and ran to the north valet area at Encore, 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South, police said,
The Metro officer in the helicopter had alerted Wynn security guards about the suspect, whom they found hiding. Police arrested him without incident.
Manriquez was booked into Clark County Detention Center for robbery with a deadly weapon, burglary while in possession of a firearm, attempted murder of a police officer with a deadly weapon, battery with a deadly weapon, discharging a firearm into an occupied structure and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.
Police searched the suspect’s crashed vehicle and recovered the gun.
Court documents show Manriquez was convicted of a felony charge of battery with a deadly weapon with substantial bodily harm in 2012.
A representative from Wynn Resorts Ltd., which owns Encore, declined to comment.
Review-Journal writer Max Michor contributed to this report. Contact Jessica Terrones at jterrones@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find @JessATerrones on Twitter. Contact Christian Bertolaccini at cbertolaccini@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow@bertolaccinic on Twitter. Contact Max Michor at mmichor@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find @MaxMichor on Twitter.