Slaying suspect captured on bus
A 28-year-old Las Vegas man wanted in connection with a December slaying in Henderson was captured Thursday on a Greyhound bus bound for Southern California.
The Los Angeles FBI Fugitive Task Force stopped the bus in Claremont, Calif., after detectives in Las Vegas received a tip that Derrick L. McKnight might be on board.
Las Vegas police Sgt. Dave Stansbury said McKnight had been hiding in Southern Nevada since Dec. 5, when Kenneth A Hardwick, 45, was gunned down at a Jack in the Box restaurant drive-through on Eastern Avenue, near Horizon Ridge Parkway.
“It was just by luck that we found out he bought a bus ticket and was headed out of town,” said Stansbury, who works with the multi jurisdictional Las Vegas Criminal Apprehension Team. “Luck and hard work.”
On Monday, McKnight remained in the Los Angeles County Jail awaiting an extradition hearing.
A second suspect, Timothy R. Burnside, 26, remains at large.
Warrants were filed in February charging McKnight and Burnside with murder with a deadly weapon, robbery with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery in connection with the shooting.
It is unclear whether the victim knew the two suspects, but Stansbury said the three men were seen together at Mandalay Bay on the night of the crime.
“The motive was robbery, and the suspects targeted the victim,” said Henderson police spokesman Keith Paul.
Anyone with information about Burnside, who goes by the nickname “Bone,” can call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555 or Henderson police at 267-4750.
