IN BRIEF

LAS VEGAS SHOOTING

Man dies from wound suffered in August

Las Vegas police seek the public's help in a case involving the recent death of a 35-year-old man who was shot in the head in August.

Police identified the victim as Harold L. Polk and think he might have been homeless.

At 1 a.m. on Aug. 25, police were called to the intersection of Nellis Boulevard and Sahara Avenue and found Polk, who had been shot.

On Jan. 6, Polk died from his injuries.

Police said Polk was last seen, uninjured, at 12:30 a.m., leaving a convenience store. He was wearing black pants and a yellow T-shirt that read, "I stood up for Skeeter."

DOWNTOWN LV HOTEL

31-year-old identified as shooting victim

The man shot and killed at the Lamplighter Hotel on Jan. 4 has been identified as 31-year-old Francisco Javier Uribe-Valdivia. His hometown has not been determined.

Las Vegas police said they responded to a shooting call at the hotel, 2805 Fremont St., about 11:45 p.m. They arrived and found Uribe-Valdivia dead from gunshot wounds.

Police are looking for three suspects, a man and two women, in connection with the killing. Witnesses saw the people near the motel around the time of the slaying but could provide no detailed descriptions to police.

FOUR SUSPECTS CHARGED

Money for work cited as kidnapping motive

The four men who kidnapped a North Las Vegas man on Jan. 5 and took him to a Henderson home did it "because his brother owed them money for work they did," according to the suspects' arrest reports.

The four men, ages 24 through 30, kidnapped 34-year-old Alberto Rangel at gunpoint at a North Las Vegas home that afternoon, according to police. They later called Rangel's brother and told him that they wanted $60,000, or they would kill Rangel, the arrest reports said.

North Las Vegas police and FBI investigators tracked the suspects' cell phone to a neighborhood in Henderson, near Wigwam Parkway and Eastern Avenue, and found them and the victim, who was bound with duct tape.

Police and FBI officials said the kidnapping was narcotics-related, but the report does not mention narcotics.

The suspects face charges including first-degree kidnapping, extortion, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.

ACCIDENT ON INTERSTATE 15

Name of van driver in fatal crash released

The man who died after his van plowed into the back of a tractor-trailer on Interstate 15 on Jan. 3 has been identified as Lawrence Verley.

The Clark County coroner's office has not determined his age and hometown.

Verley was driving north on the highway just past mile marker 79, near the turnoff to Valley of Fire State Park, according to the Nevada Highway Patrol.

His van veered off the roadway and into the back of a big rig parked at a paved turnoff at 7:42 a.m. The van burst into flames, and the trailer, which was full of bananas, caught fire.

The accident woke the driver of the rig, who had been sleeping in the cab. He managed to detach the cab from the trailer and drive it away from the flames.

Verley died at the scene.