Police say teen admits shooting

Sixteen-year-old Gerald Q. Davison told police he was trying to scare four Palo Verde High School classmates when he pulled out a small handgun and fired four shots from a moving car Friday, killing one of them, according to his arrest report.

A young woman in the car said the shooting was in retaliation for one of the four students throwing "gang signs" at her, two Palo Verde girls in the car told police.

The details in the report, released Wednesday, provided the closest thing to a possible motive in the shooting, which has shaken the high school community in Summerlin.

But key aspects were not included in the report, such as who, if anyone, might have made the gang signs and when such an altercation might have occurred.

Still unknown is how premeditated the attack was.

Two Palo Verde students in the car with Davison -- Laquavea Walker and Kandace Cox -- were the first to contact police after the 1:45 p.m. shooting. Cox's mother called police about 8 p.m.

According to the arrest report, the two students told police they had asked Davison, a Palo Verde sophomore, for a ride after school in a car driven by 19-year-old Ezekiel Williams, who was not a student at the school.

Davison rebuffed their request for a ride, and as Williams pulled up along Pavilion Center Drive, Davison got into the car and sat in the back seat behind Williams.

In the passenger's seat was Mandesha Walker, who is not a Palo Verde student and who is not thought to be related to Laquavea Walker.

The car with the three people then drove south on Pavilion Center, headed west, behind the school, on Alta Drive, and then made a U-turn.

At the intersection of Pavilion Center and Alta, Williams honked and told Cox and Laquavea Walker to get in the car, and they sat in the back seat with Davison.

Then, as the champagne-colored Pontiac Grand Am crossed Pavilion Center heading east on Alta, Davison cocked a .22-caliber Luger between his legs, the two Palo Verde girls told police.

According to the arrest report, he stuck the gun out of the window as the car crossed a group of four Palo Verde students walking home on Alta: freshman Christopher Privett, Fred Miller, Khyri Carter and Enrique Melendez.

Davison fired four shots, according to the arrest report. One struck Privett in the chest.

Paramedics took him to Summerlin Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour later. Privett, 15, was an honor student who played on the school's freshman football team. Funeral services are set for today.

Another bullet hit Melendez's backpack, but he wasn't injured, according to the report. But two sources said that it was a different student's backpack that was hit. The other two shots struck a cement wall and a home behind the victims.

As Williams sped away, Mandesha Walker turned to the two Palo Verde girls in the back seat and said the shooting was in retaliation for an altercation that occurred on the northwest corner of Alta and Pavilion Center, the two girls told police.

The victims "threw gang signs at her," the girls said Walker told them. The report did not state who flashed the signs and when the signs were flashed. Las Vegas police have found no evidence linking any of the people involved in the shooting to gangs.

Williams then dropped off Laquavea Walker and Cox at Cox's house. He then dropped off Davison at Smoke Ranch Road and Decatur Boulevard.

Police found Davison early the following morning in a friend's bedroom at a nearby home and arrested him on charges of murder, three counts of attempted murder and four counts of discharging a firearm from a moving vehicle.

He confessed to shooting the students, according to his arrest report, and said it was in retaliation for the "altercation in front of the school."

Williams told police that there was no altercation before the shooting and that he never handled the gun in the shooting, according to the arrest report.

Police arrested him Tuesday on one count of accessory to murder and three counts of accessory to attempted murder.

He was arrested by North Las Vegas police in August on charges of having a weapon in a vehicle and having an open container in a vehicle, police said. But there are no records to indicate he was formally charged in the case.

Williams has worked at the Review-Journal as a contract employee working maintenance jobs during the summers of 2005, 2006 and 2007. His mother, Caren Jones, oversees security at the Review-Journal.

None of the other people in the car has been charged with any crimes, but police over the weekend said they had not been able to get in touch with Mandesha Walker.

On Wednesday, police spokesman Marty Wright said police were still investigating the case and would not confirm whether investigators had contacted Mandesha Walker yet.

Since Palo Verde classes resumed on Tuesday, the school has seen no violent incidents on its campus, Clark County School District Police Sgt. Ken Young said.

"Everything's been quiet," Young said. "It's been fine."

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0440.