Ice cream truck driver shot, killed by police

An ice cream truck driver was shot and killed by a Henderson police officer on Wednesday after the woman threatened her child and police with a knife.

Police said they had called Deshira Selimaj, 42, to the scene of a traffic stop involving her husband, Zyber Selimaj, 65, after he became combative and refused to sign a traffic citation.

Zyber Selimaj, who was also driving an ice cream truck, had been pulled over for speeding and failing to obey a stop sign about a half-mile south of Coronado High School.

Police said a language barrier hindered communication with the Albanian immigrant couple, but that both Zyber and Deshira Selimaj made suicidal statements during the incident.

At some point, police said, Deshira Selimaj returned to her ice cream truck, got a knife and held it to the throat of one of her sons.

Police said they tried to subdue her using Tasers but she did not drop the knife and made an aggressive move toward them.

Police were able to pull the child away from the mother before officer Luke Morrison, 23, shot the woman, who later died at a hospital.

Zyber Selimaj was arrested on traffic violations and a charge of obstructing police.

Selimaj was held in the Henderson jail until posting nearly $4,000 bail Thursday night. He had tearfully pleaded not guilty on Thursday to those charges in Henderson Municipal Court.

Selimaj was reunited with his three young sons Friday. The boys, Alban, 12, Azbi, 7, and Arber, 5, stuck close to their father as they left Child Haven just after noon.

"I have to be strong for me and my kids," he said through a translator, his longtime friend Fismik Boyku. "I hope this doesn't happen to anybody else. It's ruined my life."

Boyku said Selimaj on Friday told his sons that their mother was dead.

Alban understood, Boyku said, but "the two other kids are very young. They kind of act like it's a dream."

The boys had been in protective custody since his arrest.

MONDAY

Lawmaker wants funds for school

A Sparks assemblywoman urged Gov. Jim Gibbons to spend some of the extra $40 million discovered last week by the state treasurer to reduce cuts in public education funding.

Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said the additional revenue offers an opportunity to reduce per- pupil spending cuts.

Gibbons announced last month that he will cut $92 million from public education spending between now and July 2009. Last week, state Treasurer Kate Marshall said she found $40 million in unclaimed property and other funds that can be returned to the state general fund.

TUESDAY

Study warns lake could go dry

North America's largest man-made reservoir, the source of 90 percent of Southern Nevada's water supply, could be sucked dry by overuse and climate change in 13 years or less, a study warned.

The report by the University of California-San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography places Lake Mead's chances of running dry by 2021 at 50 percent.

WEDNESDAY

High winds wreak havoc

A battering northwest wind knocked out power, halted flights at McCarran International Airport and crumpled the bottom line of Las Vegas street vendors who saw their Valentine's Day hearts and flowers carried away in whipping gusts.

"We lost 20 percent of our merchandise," said Jason Earl of Kimera Group, which has nine Valentine's Day stands throughout Las Vegas.

Wind speeds were measured as high as 78 mph at the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, comparable to that of a Category 1 hurricane.

THURSDAY

Economic dip cuts into Strip jobs

Large Strip companies and local gaming operators throughout Clark County have begun taking steps to trim hours and payrolls because of a slowdown in business, company officials acknowledged.

"The notion that Las Vegas is immune from these downturns in the economy is completely false," MGM Mirage Senior Vice President Alan Feldman said. "We may be better able to withstand it than other marketplaces. Through the years, we've proven that we are, but we're not immune from it."

The gaming companies would not say how many people have been affected by layoffs and cuts in hours.

FRIDAY

Palo Verde student killed in drive-by

An after-school drive-by shooting near Palo Verde High School left a freshman boy dead.

Classes had been over for about 20 minutes and students were spilling into surrounding neighborhoods when shots rang out a few hundred yards from the Summerlin high school.

Police on Saturday arrested a 16-year-old suspect in the shooting.

COMPILED BY MICHAEL SQUIRES READ THE FULL STORIES ONLINE AT www.reviewjournal.com/wir