Police suspect link to family
The second deadly home invasion in three days, in which an intruder holding a 13-year-old boy hostage was shot early Saturday, might not have been a random act, Las Vegas police said.
Police are investigating a possible connection between the suspect and the residents of the home on Chestnut Hollow Avenue, near Grand Teton Drive and Durango Road.
"There might end up being a nexus between the two," police Lt. Lew Roberts said, declining to elaborate.
Police said a family was inside the house when the father heard a loud thud. The father, who was on the second floor of the house, walked to the stairs to investigate and saw his 13-year-old son being held at gunpoint by a man wearing a ski mask, Roberts said.
The boy and the suspect walked upstairs, where the father shot the suspect. Andreas McRiley, 21, died from a gunshot wound to the chest.
The father, Andrew Hanzelic, could not be reached for comment Monday. He spoke to several television stations Saturday about what happened and showed blood on the stairs and a front door that had been kicked open.
Hanzelic told TV reporters that he hid around a corner and jumped out and shot the suspect.
No arrests have been made in the case.
Neighbor Carolyn Jarvis said the light from a police helicopter illuminated her bedroom about 2 a.m. Saturday and woke her and her husband.
The next day, she learned that one of the neighbors had shot and killed an intruder, a crime she thought could never happen in her neighborhood.
"This is a real quiet, real friendly place to live," she said. "All I could think was, 'What's going on here?'"
Jarvis said that she did not know Hanzelic and that her family won't change their lifestyle. No one at her house owns a gun, and they don't plan to buy one, she said.
"We have three kids, and none of them are allowed to answer the door anyway," she said. "I've always felt we've been pretty safe."
Hanzelic was arrested in February on charges of forgery, burglary, possession of a false ID and eight counts of possession of a credit card without the cardholder's consent, according to an arrest report.
He has a preliminary hearing in the case on Dec. 10.
The incident was the second deadly home invasion in three days and the third in two months.
On Thursday, 48-year-old Mark Matthew McIsaac was shot and killed while entering a house and struggling with a homeowner on Sycamore Trail, near Rancho and Vegas drives. Police are investigating possible motives for the break-in.
In October, brothers Richard and Martin Saterstad were arrested on murder and drug-related charges after shooting a man who broke into their Desert Shores house in the northwest valley. Dane Searcy, 25, died during what police called a "drug-related robbery."
Police spokesman Bill Cassell said any assumption that Las Vegas is experiencing a trend of random home invasions is false.
"I certainly wouldn't call it a trend," he said. "It seems like the majority of the home invasions were related to some type of criminal activity."
Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440. Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.
