Man shot dead in van in North Las Vegas parking lot
North Las Vegas police confirmed Sunday evening that a dead man found slumped over the driver’s seat of his portable car wash utility van early in the day had been shot.
The 37-year-old man’s death is being investigated as a homicide.
It was the second homicide in just over two hours investigated Sunday morning by North Las Vegas police.
About 7:15 a.m., officers were requested to investigate a shooting at a parking lot on the southwest corner of East Lake Mead Boulevard and North McCarran Street, near Civic Center Drive. There, they found a man dead inside the white utility van.
“The preliminary investigation indicates the man was shot in the parking lot of a business complex,” police spokesman Aaron Patty wrote in a statement.
At the scene Sunday morning, with the van’s back doors wide open while detectives investigated, several cleaning products could be seen inside the vehicle. Near the rear tires of the portable car wash van were buckets and hoses.
On the other side of the yellow police tape Sunday, the man’s family, who at times could be heard crying, stood watch as investigators took photos of the van. Paramedics were eventually called to the scene to treat one of the man’s distraught family members, who police said was having difficulty breathing.
“No suspect was located on police arrival. However, given the location, detectives believe there may be more witnesses in this case,” Patty wrote.
Anyone with with information about the killing can contact the North Las Vegas Police Department at (702) 633-9111 or, to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at (702) 385-5555.
The man’s injuries were “not immediately visible” to police due to his position inside the vehicle, Patty said Sunday morning. Police had to wait for a Clark County coroner to arrive at the scene and move the body.
As the investigation into the man’s death unfolded Sunday morning, another team of North Las Vegas investigators less than a mile away were looking into the shooting death of a man, also thought to have been in his 30s. He was gunned down in the street near Cartier Avenue and Bruce Street, police said.
Police believe the two homicides are not related to each other, Patty wrote.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.
