North Las Vegas shooting suspect tells police, ‘I did it’
North Las Vegas police found a scene but no evidence.
They spotted a victim, but he didn’t say who shot him.
They spoke with bystanders but didn’t learn anything useful.
And then a man in a red shirt and white shorts approached the shooting scene with his hands up in the air.
“I did it, I shot him,” the man said, according to his arrest report. “Just hook me up already.”
The North Las Vegas officers obliged, and Edward Willis Jenkins, 33, was later arrested in the shooting of two people last month in an alley near Civic Center Drive and Cheyenne Avenue, Jenkins’ arrest report said.
Prosecutors charged Jenkins late last month with attempted murder and battery resulting in substantial bodily harm, each with a deadly weapon, court records show. His bail was set at $100,000, court records show.
One man was found in an alley about 11:25 p.m. June 22 on the 2000 block of Venus Avenue, while the second later checked into Valley Hospital Medical Center with a gunshot wound, Police Department spokesman Eric Leavitt said Monday.
Both gunshot victims underwent surgery and were expected to survive, Leavitt said. Neither was particularly cooperative with police, although one of the two ended up speaking after his surgery, Leavitt said.
Upon arrival to the alley, officers found the man laying on his back and bleeding from his right hip, the report said.
He answered basic questions with heavy breaths, yet he was “unable to tell me who shot at him nor if anyone else was shot,” an officer wrote in the report.
People in the area were unable to tell police what had happened or if there were any other victims. Detectives scoured the scene for “anything of evidentiary value” but came up empty, the report said.
Then came the man with his hands in the air, who identified himself as Jenkins to police but wouldn’t provide additional identifying information.
Jenkins told police that the man in the ambulance was his friend and that he didn’t intend to shoot him, the report said.
Instead, Jenkins told police, he meant to shoot his brother, the report said.
“When I asked Edward if he shot [redacted], Edward replied, ‘I don’t know, but I hope I did,’” the report said.
He told officers that the redacted individual “tried to stab him in the past but he never gets arrested,” other than a 72-hour legal hold, according to the report.
Jenkins stopped answering questions when an officer asked where the gun was.
“Let’s just take this to trial,” Jenkins said, “just take me in already.”
He has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Thursday morning in North Las Vegas Justice Court.
^
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.
