Fight at central Las Vegas apartment complex leaves 1 dead

A man is dead and another was shot after a fight Wednesday night in a central Las Vegas Valley apartment complex.

Metropolitan Police Department officers were called at 11:45 p.m. to the Emory Apartment Homes at 5100 O’Bannon Drive, near West Sahara Avenue and South Decatur Boulevard, Lt. Corey Moon said.

Officers responded to reports of gunshots. Police arrived and discovered a 49-year-old man had been shot and killed at the scene after a fight, said Lt. Dan McGrath with Metro’s homicide unit.

“Unfortunately, this person who was shot only made it about 10 or 15 feet, and then he collapsed,” McGrath said.

As police arrived at the complex, they received a call of another man with a gunshot wound, McGrath said. The man, in his 50s, told police he had been shot at the apartment complex before driving himself to a house north of the shooting site.

McGrath said the second man was shot with “shotgun-type pellets” and was at University Medical Center. McGrath said he expected the man to survive.

The fight

Both men shot were part of a group of five men and women who drove to the apartment complex. The group eventually fought with at least two residents from an apartment at the complex. It wasn’t clear what precipitated the fight, McGrath said, but police do not think it was gang-related. He said there appeared to be a history of drug use among the group, but the ensuing brawl didn’t follow a drug deal, McGrath said.

The car they drove to the complex was the same one that the second man shot took to the house north of the complex.

Police found evidence at the scene of a fight outside an apartment building including shoes, blood, sunglasses, hats, a police baton and what McGrath described as metal tile-scraping object, which could have ebeen used as a weapon.

“It’s kind of a convoluted event,” he said.

McGrath said there were several witnesses to the shooting, but those involved in the fight ran away.

“I think the witnesses here are just giving us the basic details of hearing and seeing yelling, screaming and gunshots,” McGrath said. “We’re more interested in the people that were involved trying to tell us what actually happened.”

Police think there was only one shooter, who McGrath said likely was part of the group from the apartment. Witnesses described the possible shooter as a heavyset man wearing a black tank top, jeans and Nike shoes.

Officers searched the apartment but found it was empty.

A neighbor’s account

Chris Bittner, who lives in the complex and near where the fight occurred, said he heard two gunshots in short succession.

The first gunshot woke him up and he sprung out of bed.

“It was like instantaneous,” he said.

He threw on a shirt and heard the second gunshot.

He went outside, saw a group gathering around a man who was shot. A woman was doing chest compressions on him while speaking with 911, he said.

The Clark County coroner’s office will identify the deceased once next of kin is notified.

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