Las Vegas police investigating shooting death of woman found on street

Las Vegas police are investigating an early Wednesday morning homicide on Quartz Lane near View Drive.

Police received calls about 12:45 a.m. from residents in the neighborhood saying they’d heard gunshots, said Lt. David Gordon with Metropolitan Police Department.

When they arrived, police found a woman, who had been shot on Quartz Lane.

The woman looked to be in her early 20s, Lt. Dan McGrath said Wednesday. She was lying on the sidewalk against a wall between houses on Quartz.

“It’s unusual to have a female basically dumped on the sidewalk at this time,” he said.

McGrath said the woman was shot in the head. He didn’t know how many times she was shot. Officers did find two bullet casings next to her body, he said, leading him to believe the woman was shot and killed where the body was found.

Witnesses saw a gray four-door car leave the area shortly after hearing gunshots. Police aren’t sure whether she was in the car or the car was related to the shooting, he said, but police were looking for the vehicle.

“Nobody heard arguing, so it’s kind of speculation at this point,” McGrath said.

McGrath wasn’t sure whether the unidentified woman lived in the area or how many possible suspects were involved.

Later Wednesday morning, police will start asking neighbors for possible video footage from cameras installed around the neighborhood to piece together what led to and followed the shooting.

Quartz opened up shortly before 5 a.m.

A helicopter with a searchlight briefly circled above the neighborhood near South Jones Boulevard and Alta Drive about 1:15 a.m.

This is the 140th homicide Metro has worked this year, four more than Metro’s total from all of 2015.

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