‘Pacman’ targeted, police say

NFL star Adam "Pacman" Jones paid out thousands of dollars after receiving "extortion" telephone calls and other threats to himself and his family shortly after the February 2007 shooting at the Minxx nightclub that left a man paralyzed, a police report says.

According to the report, Jones and one of his close friends received calls last year from a man who would only identify himself as "P." Jones and his friend were told, either by "P" or later on through intermediaries, that Jones needed to come up with the money, as much as $15,000. The report notes that the payment was to be "for 'services rendered' for the shooting in Las Vegas."

The shooting during the NBA All-Star Weekend left bouncer Tom Urbanski paralyzed from the waist down. Two other people suffered less serious injuries when they were struck by gunfire.

On Friday, Las Vegas police announced that Arvin Edwards, 29, of Renton, Wash., was being charged with three counts of attempted murder with a weapon and three counts of battery with a weapon in connection with the Minxx assault.

Police do not specifically say in the report that Edwards is "P," the man who allegedly extorted Jones, but the report describes circumstances suggesting Edwards indeed sought payment from Jones.

The report said Edwards' telephone records were checked and confirm that on several dates during the time of the extortion plot, Edwards contacted Jones in Atlanta and Franklin, Tenn., from Seattle.

Edwards is currently being held in Yakima County, Wash., on fourth-degree assault, a domestic violence charge that's unrelated to the Minxx incident. He is expected to be extradited to Southern Nevada in the next two to four weeks, Las Vegas police said.

According to the report, Jones on Friday went to Yakima and identified Edwards as the shooter out of a lineup that included five other people.

Robert Langford, Jones' Las Vegas lawyer, said everything in the report is "true and correct." Langford said the report exonerates Jones, and that his client does not know Edwards.

Langford said Jones should be commended for cooperating with police, especially considering the anti-snitching climate prevalent in many cities.

"I hope people consider Adam a hero in all of this," Langford said. "In a lot of neighborhoods in America, West Coast and East Coast, you just shut up. Adam didn't do that. He decided it wasn't right that someone was going to get away hurting a bunch of people."

Las Vegas police did not return a call for comment on the contents of the police report Monday afternoon.

Jones first received a threatening phone call in his Atlanta home one week after the shooting, the report said.

"P" wanted to collect money for a 'car,' " the report said. "Jones did not understand this reference. ... Jones hung up."

Jones received two or three similar phone calls and refused to cooperate.

When Jones' close friend, Christopher Davis, relayed a similar message, Jones again refused to pay. An Atlanta man with a reputation for violence then contacted Davis and told him that if Jones refused to pay, his family's safety was in jeopardy.

Davis eventually told Jones that he felt the threats were serious and that he would take care of the payments on Jones' behalf, the report said. He made two wire payments to a woman identified as Edwards' girlfriend. The remainder was given to the Atlanta man.

Davis would later approach Jones about reimbursement and Jones withdrew $10,000 a bank account to give to Davis, according to the report.

Edwards' girlfriend said she picked up wired payments for Edwards in Seattle but didn't know what the payments were for, the report said.

The woman, who was in Las Vegas during All-Star weekend, told police Edwards was in town during the strip club shooting and believed him to be capable of the crime, the report said.

The report also said that during the shooting, a man approached an agitated Jones who had just been escorted outside the club and told Jones not to worry, he would "take care of it."

Jones didn't know what the man was talking about, the report said. Shortly afterward, the unidentified man opened fire outside the nightclub, the report said.

Las Vegas police initially stated they believed the shooter was an associate of Jones. A club owner at Minxx also previously told the Review-Journal that Jones was sitting next to the shooter inside the club before shots were fired.

But Matthew Dushoff, a lawyer representing Urbanski and his wife, Kathy, said the police report is only Jones' side of the story. He said he still believes that Jones has some culpability in the incident that left his client paralyzed from the waist down.

"Those are his claims," Dushoff said. "He said he was extorted. Who knows if that's accurate. I'm definitely not going to take his word on it. ... We need to find out the truth in what happened."

Authorities said Jones started a fight early in the morning inside the strip club at 4636 Wynn Road, near Arville Street and Tropicana Avenue, when he threw hundreds of dollars onto the stage for a visual effect known as "making it rain."

Jones, who was with about six other people, became irate and got into a fight with bouncers in the club after strippers started taking the money, police said.

The shooting occurred outside the club after Jones and his entourage had been kicked out. Urbanski, another club employee and a female club patron were shot.

Dushoff said a civil lawsuit filed by the Urbanskis against Jones, the National Football League and the Tennessee Titans, contends Jones was at fault.

The lawsuit also names the NFL and the Titans for not taking action against Jones. He has been arrested six times since the Titans drafted him in April 2005.

The suspended Titans cornerback brokered a plea deal with prosecutors in December. He was given probation for pleading no contest to one charge of conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct and agreeing to testify against the shooter in the incident.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Jones more than a year ago, and he has been out of the league ever since. Published reports have said the Dallas Cowboys are trying to obtain Jones if he is reinstated into the league.

Langford rebuffed any suggestion that Jones paid off Edwards in order to buy his silence.

"Any hint of an allegation of him paying somebody off is wrong and police don't think that," Langford said. "Because they would have taken the investigation in whole different way if they thought that."

Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.