Tonopah man, North Las Vegas woman arrested after explosives found in car
A man and a woman were arrested Tuesday in Goldfield after explosive devices were found in a car parked outside the county courthouse, about 27 miles south of Tonopah.
Bobby McAnally, 32, of Tonopah, and Rebecca Leavitt, 28, of North Las Vegas, were arrested after a search of their vehicle revealed two explosive devices inside a backpack in the trunk of their car.
The pair drove to the courthouse to report a dispute with the occupants of another vehicle in Tonopah early Tuesday morning, Esmeralda County Sheriff Kenneth Elgan said. After taking their report, a deputy found the explosives and a long gun in the vehicle.
About 6 a.m., Anthony “Butch” Stone and his brother, Nick Stone, were driving in Tonopah when they confronted McAnally about a previous dispute.
“I was stopping in the road hoping to get them stopped. I got down to about 20 (mph) and they went around me on the left. I looked over my shoulder and I saw the barrel of a gun. I hit the brakes. Right when I hit the brakes, it fired. It barely missed me,” Anthony Stone said.
The brothers followed McAnally’s car and called police to report the shooting.
“(Leavitt) hung out of the window and said, ‘I’m on the phone with the cops right now.’ So for our own protection, we didn’t want them to get away and go hide the gun. They called the cops and told them that we had shotguns, which we did not have,” Anthony Stone said. “So we called dispatch to tell them that the person who just called had shot at us.”
Officials cordoned off the area surrounding the courthouse, including the county jail, the courthouse, an elementary school, local businesses and residential homes were evacuated from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday and traffic was rerouted from the area, according to Elgan.
Elgan said although the windows at the county jail were broken with the force of the blast, there was no other damage to report from the incident.
McAnally, Leavitt and all other Goldfield jail inmates were being held in the Nye County Detention Center in Tonopah while repairs are made at the Goldfield jail.
Elgan said his office was working on filing state charges against McAnally and Leavitt. They could also face federal charges.
