Neighborhood slayings not related, police say

      Two men have been shot to death within three days on a neighborhood street in eastern Las Vegas, but police say there is no apparent connection between the two slayings.
      About 9 p.m. Sunday night, Las Vegas police arrived at 510 W. McWilliams St. and found 35-year-old Victor McCoy dead from a gunshot wound.
      Two days before that, homicide detectives began investigating the death of Orlando Rooks, 23, who was found dead in the 900 block of McWilliams.
      "We are discussing with the other team (investigating McCoy) whether it could be retaliation," said Sgt. Bill Keeton, who is investigating Rooks' slaying.
      Rooks was left lying in the street Friday about 2 a.m. with a loaded .22-caliber revolver in his hand. The gun was cocked and had been fired once, Keeton said. Police are investigating whether Rooks was in a gunbattle.
      McCoy was inside apartment No. C at the 510 W. McWilliams location with a group of people, police said. Witnesses told police two men clad in black with ski masks burst in, waving guns.
      The people in the apartment scrambled out the front and back doors, police said. Police believe the shooters' intended target, who was not named, went out the front door and the gunmen left through the back door and shot McCoy.
      McCoy was not the intended target, Sgt. Ken Hefner said.
      Both McCoy, a three-time convicted felon with narcotics charges, and Rooks had extensive criminal backgrounds -- mostly drug-related offenses, police said.
      Keeton said police are investigating a report that Rooks had talked of using the gun to rob a drug dealer the night before he was shot to death.
      Anyone with information about these cases may call police at 229-3521 or Secret Witness at 385-5555.