IN BRIEF
DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT
Fugitive wanted in slaying arrested in LV
A Dallas fugitive was arrested in Las Vegas on Monday afternoon in the slaying of his mother earlier this year, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Cesar Hernandez, 20, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center pending extradition to Texas.
He was arrested in the area of Tropicana Avenue and Maryland Parkway.
The service said Hernandez was wanted by the Dallas Police Department in the slaying of his mother, Esther Hernandez, 43.
Her husband found her body inside a closet at her home on Mother's Day, two days after she was reported missing, the service said. Dallas police worked with U.S. marshals there and with Nevada's Fugitive Investigative Strike Team to coordinate the arrest.
MAN AND WOMAN FOUND DEAD
LV police call incident a murder-suicide
A man and a woman in their mid-20s were found dead Monday afternoon in what Las Vegas police called a murder-suicide at a southeast valley home.
Authorities did not release their identities.
Police said a housekeeper alerted them about 1 p.m. to the home at 1292 Sun Village Ave., near Maryland Parkway and Silverado Ranch Boulevard.
Homicide Sgt. William Scott said they were shot to death. He did not comment on the nature of their relationship.
He said police found the woman's body on a couch and the man's body upstairs.
Scott speculated the shootings occurred either Friday or Saturday.
27-YEAR-OLD MAN ARRESTED
LV officer in shooting on Strip identified
The Las Vegas police officer who fired his weapon during a traffic stop Friday night on the Strip was identified as Jesse Gerstal.
The 28-year-old was one of two bicycle officers who pulled over a dark-colored sport utility vehicle about 7:45 p.m. Friday. Police said the driver was stopped near Spring Mountain Road, and "words were exchanged."
The car accelerated and ran over the officers' bicycles, and one of the officers was grazed by the vehicle.
Gerstal fired four rounds, and the driver left before being caught. Nobody was hurt.
Police arrested 27-year-old Eric Perez on charges of battery on an officer with a deadly weapon and resisting a public officer. He was released Monday on bail.
Gerstal has been a Las Vegas police officer since April 2006 and is assigned to the Convention Center Area Command.
RIVER RUN RIOT
Lawsuits to proceed in '02 Laughlin melee
A group of lawsuits by innocent bystanders caught in the deadly 2002 Laughlin River Run riot will go forward after the Nevada Supreme Court overturned a district judge's decision to throw the cases out.
In its opinion released Thursday, the high court said District Judge Susan Johnson should not have dismissed the cases filed by five people who allege Harrah's Laughlin officials knew about an impending violent showdown between rival biker gangs yet did not warn patrons or take steps to prevent the melee that left three dead.
Johnson dismissed the cases because several similar cases in federal and state court had cleared the hotel of negligence. Johnson also ordered the bystanders to pay nearly $350,000 in lawyer fees and costs, saying their lawsuits were frivolous and should have been dropped in light of the other cases.
But the Supreme Court said those earlier cases did not apply because they were filed by members of the Mongols biker gang or their relatives, neither of whom represented the innocent bystanders.
The court also ruled Johnson abused her discretion in awarding the legal fees.
BOX CUTTER USED
Arrests 'coming' in stabbing incidents
A man who stabbed his boyfriend with a box cutter late Sunday was later stabbed by the victim's brother, Las Vegas police said.
The man stabbed his boyfriend in the chest and arm about 9:30 p.m. during a fight in an apartment at 1700 N. Lamb Blvd., near Owens Avenue, police said.
Hours later the victim's brother stabbed the man in the abdomen, officer Barbara Morgan said.
Both victims were taken to local hospitals with non-life threatening injuries, she said. Morgan said the incidents were being investigated, and "arrests are coming."
