Man fights for life after being shot near homeless camp in central Las Vegas

One man was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center after he was shot in the throat Thursday morning.

The man’s injuries are life-threatening, said Lt. Kris Burke with Metropolitan Police Department.

It wasn’t immediately clear what led up to the the shooting, Burke said. He said the first calls came in about 3:25 a.m. about a shooting in the 5100 block of South Maryland Parkway.

A woman, 32-year-old Angie Clugston, who said she was friends with both the injured man and his girlfriend, said she spoke with the girlfriend shortly after the shooting happened. Clugston was walking near a 7-Eleven, she said, when she heard the girlfriend yelling from the convenience store at 5100 S. Maryland Parkway.

“I thought she maybe got robbed or something because she’s been robbed here before,” she said.

Clugston said the girlfriend told her that a man approached the couple and asked for a cigarette. She told the man they didn’t have any. At that point, the man pulled out a gun.

“She said he held the gun right at his face and then shot him,” she said.

Clugston said she wasn’t sure whether the man who had been shot said anything to the assailant before being shot.

Burke said officers weren’t exactly sure where the shooting happened, but police had taped off the 7-Eleven and were investigating nearby a homeless camp close.

Burke said the victim appeared to be homeless.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.