Las Vegas kidnapping suspect in custody after barricade situation, police say

Antwon Perkins, the man suspected of the Thursday abduction and assault of a Cadwallader Middle School student, has been taken into custody after he barricaded himself inside a North Las Vegas home for hours, Las Vegas police said.

Police said Perkins was being taken to University Medical Center with self-inflicted injuries. The extent of the injuries was unclear.

Officers located the 35-year-old near Simmons and Abundance streets, north of Lone Mountain Road, around 6 p.m. Friday. Perkins barricaded himself inside a home for hours while Metropolitan Police Department officers and a SWAT team negotiated with him, police said at the scene.

Perkins was persuaded to come outside the home around 9 p.m., Metro sex crimes bureau Lt. David Valenta said. Perkins was alone inside the home, where a woman he knows lives.

An ambulance escorted by a police car was seen driving through the crime scene tape outside of the scene Friday night.

Valenta said Perkins lives in North Las Vegas about four miles away from where he abducted the child, and detectives attempted to serve an arrest warrant at his home on Thursday.

Robot deployed

On Friday, negotiators eventually used a police robot to enter the house and determine what was happening inside, Valenta said.

“Using the robot we were able to assess the condition and get him to come out at that point,” he said.

Valenta said the victim in the case is OK, “best as you can be considering the traumatic incident we’re talking about.”

Police will work to determine if Perkins is suspected of any other crimes, he said.

“This is a very brazen, violent crime,” Valenta said. “From my experience working sex crimes most people do not start out at this level. So we will absolutely be looking at that.”

Perkins is a former correctional officer at High Desert State Prison, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has learned. He currently works at McCarran International Airport, Valenta said.

The child was kidnapped while walking past a convenience store on the corner of Farm and Cimarron roads early Thursday, police said.

Surveillance footage showed a large, black “dually” pickup with two tires on the rear axle pulling up to the student at that location. The footage then shows the driver getting out of the vehicle and forcing the child into the truck.

Police said the driver took the child to another location, where the assault took place. The truck’s driver later dropped the child off near the convenience store.

School urges safety practices

Once free, the child ran to the school at 7775 W. Elkhorn Road, near North Buffalo Drive, and notified an employee, police said. The employee called police about 11:20 a.m.

The school’s principal, Mindi Martinez, sent a letter to parents Thursday via ParentLink, notifying them of the attack, according to the Clark County School District.

In the letter, Martinez also explained that’s why parents may have noticed an increased police presence at the school during afternoon dismissal.

“This incident serves as a reminder of the importance of having students who are walking or biking to school to pair up with other students, or for parents to work with each other on carpooling to work on ensuring students are able to get to and from school safely,” the message read. “The safety of our students is of the utmost importance.”

Detectives on Thursday linked Perkins to the truck seen in the surveillance footage. The truck was then located at his current place of employment, but Perkins was gone.

Public salary records show Perkins works as a plumber, and a friend said he is contracted to work at McCarran. The airport declined to comment Friday.

Perkins started working with the Nevada Department of Corrections in 2015, public salary records show. He worked as a correctional officer until 2017. A former co-worker at High Desert confirmed his identity.

The Nevada Department of Corrections did not respond to a request for comment.

Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3801. Follow @rachelacrosby on Twitter. Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.