Las Vegas police arrest motorist in child’s March death

A Las Vegas motorist accused of speeding when his vehicle struck and killed a child in March 2019 has been arrested on a charge of felony reckless driving causing death.

Court records show that Angel Manuel Lopez, 23, was arrested Friday by Las Vegas police. He is accused of driving at least 63 mph in a posted 35 mph zone just before his car struck and killed Jonathan Smith, 12, of Las Vegas, on South Fort Apache Road at Arby Avenue on March 25.

A second juvenile was struck and suffered minor injuries. The crash later led to Clark County officials installing a traffic signal at the intersection.

An arrest report for Lopez indicates that Jonathan and a friend were crossing South Fort Apache outside of a marked crosswalk when they were hit. A Las Vegas police investigator said he did an extensive analysis of how fast the vehicle was going at the time it struck the child.

“I was able to determine the Chevrolet HHR was traveling approximately 63 to 67 miles per hour at the time the brakes were applied,” the investigator wrote. “Using the velocity at any point during a skid, I was able to determine the Chevrolet HHR was traveling approximately 53 to 56 when it struck the two juvenile pedestrians.”

The investigator said a dash camera video obtained from a witness showed numerous vehicles stopped northbound on South Fort Apache with many juveniles in the area near Faiss Middle School.

“It was identified that Faiss Middle School had just released students for the day and was the reason numerous vehicles and juvenile pedestrians were in the area,” the investigator wrote.

A preliminary hearing for Lopez is scheduled for Feb. 18.

Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0390. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.