‘Odd’ moves alerted mom

Lisa Rossnagel's instincts served her right Sunday afternoon, and she feels lucky they did.

She was walking with her two daughters about three blocks from their home, near Hualapai Way and Cheyenne Avenue, when they became victims of a one-man crime spree.

A 42-year-old Las Vegas man whom police did not identify went on a two-hour rampage in the western Las Vegas Valley that included groping women, attempting to kidnap adults and children, and shooting at people he found along his way.

Rossnagel first noticed him around 3 p.m. when he parked his black Volkswagen Beetle nearby and started walking around. She said Monday that everything about his actions was random and aimless.

"He moved like he had no purpose," said Rossnagel, who opted to put distance between them. "I just thought something was odd about him right away."

She said he was average looking, bald and wore khaki shorts, a light-colored Hawaiian shirt and tennis shoes.

Moments later, the man approached her, mumbled something and put both hands on her older daughter.

Rossnagel said she began screaming and pushing at the man with her stroller, doing everything she could to cause a scene.

"I just went ballistic," she said. "I told my daughter to run."

"I was so focused on getting them out of harm's way and safe," she said of her 7-year-old and 2-year-old daughters. "I just couldn't believe it was happening. It was unreal."

The man let go of the girl and kept looking back to his car during the tussle. Rossnagel said he was smiling, violent and rather unsure of himself.

She said she flagged down a motorist, who called police.

Then she heard a popping sound to her left and saw the man sitting in his car about 50 feet away holding a 9 mm handgun.

Rossnagel said she shielded her daughters as the man fired two more shots before driving away on Cheyenne.

No one was injured during the 10-minute exchange.

"Luckily, he was a bad shot," Rossnagel said.

Jacinto Rivera, a spokesman with the Metropolitan Police Department, said Rossnagel acted correctly when she decided to scream when the man grabbed her daughter.

"If somebody tries to take your kid, immediately draw attention to yourself," Rivera said.

Rivera said Rossnagel and everybody who was confronted by the suspect Sunday was lucky because no one was seriously injured.

He said that if confronted by someone with a gun, don't provoke the suspect, just comply with his or her demands because that is the assailant's "moment of power."

"You just don't want to make them mad," Rivera said. "When someone has a gun, they are very powerful."

Two motorists helped Rossnagel and her daughters as they waited for police. She listened to the rest of the man's spree on police scanners before hearing he had shot and killed himself.

The incident was the third stop the man made.

Rivera said Monday afternoon that the entire incident, which started about 2:33 p.m., lasted more than two hours. Police initially said it lasted 105 minutes.

Witnesses and victims reported nearly a dozen similar scenes in which the man tried to kidnap, shoot or run over people or got out of his vehicle to grope women on the street.

A police helicopter and 20 to 50 officers were involved in the pursuit, from the northwest to the southwest on the Las Vegas Beltway.

Rivera said police had difficulty catching up to the man because he was a moving target. He said people need to be as specific as possible when calling 911 to give descriptions of suspects or their cars.

"Whenever you have an incident and the suspect is mobile, it's going to be hard to track," he said. "The more detail we have will help us zero in on the right vehicle or right person."

The spree ended when the suspect crashed his car near the intersection of Grand Canyon Drive and Grand Canyon Walk, north of Tropicana Avenue. He shot himself in the face when officers approached.

Rivera didn't want to speculate on the suspect's state of mind, but he ruled out suicide by cop because people who want to be killed by officers usually aren't able to do it themselves.

Contact reporter Maggie Lillis at mlillis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279. Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.