Slaying baffles police
Michael Maurice McDaniels, 48, was sitting in traffic Tuesday morning when a man walked up to his vehicle, shot him several times, got into a car and sped off.
McDaniels was a Las Vegan, born and raised.
He was working two jobs.
He owned his own home.
"He did everything," his sister, 47-year-old Stephanie McDaniels, said Wednesday. "He didn't have to ask anybody for anything."
The slaying in broad daylight at the busy intersection of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Owens Avenue has police baffled because no witnesses to the crime have come forward.
"It happened in the day, there's construction going on, cars driving by, and we didn't get any witnesses to call in," Las Vegas police Lt. Lew Roberts said.
"It's just kind of odd."
Police have a description of the vehicle and a license plate number and are looking into whether an altercation earlier in the morning might have led to the slaying.
Stephanie McDaniels said her brother had gotten into a "misunderstanding" earlier in the morning at the Bells Market corner store on Owens, just two blocks from where the shooting took place.
But "he just turned and walked away" from the situation, she said. Her brother wasn't the type to engage in a fight.
Michael McDaniels might also have been intentionally targeted.
Hours after McDaniels was pronounced dead at University Medical Center, his two daughters, ages 23 and 11, and brother went to his home to retrieve some belongings, his sister said.
As they were leaving, they were held up at gunpoint by at least two men who took their purses and wallets, she said.
"They were sitting there waiting for them," Stephanie McDaniels said.
Roberts said detectives are looking into whether the two events are related.
"Obviously that's a strange circumstance, but we haven't really found anything that leads to anything conclusive," he said.
Michael McDaniels' home had been burglarized multiple times, but he had refused to sell it and move away.
"He wasn't about to let anybody run him out of there," his sister said.
She said she believed the people who shot him were the same ones who burglarized the home multiple times and held up his family members.
His success attracted criminals, she said.
McDaniels had his own home, owned a landscaping business and recently purchased a red, late-model Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck.
"If they see you making it, and they can't make it, they'll take it from you," she said. "He had made it."
She said her brother, known as "Big Daddy" by others in his family, was a good person who told people his daughters were his "pride and joy."
He was found dead by police in the driver's seat of the truck shortly before 9 a.m. The driver-side window was shattered.
Police said the suspect, who was stopped two cars behind McDaniels at the intersection, walked to the truck and fired several rounds into the driver's side window.
The suspect walked back to his vehicle, made a U-turn and fled east on Owens.
The vehicle is described as a white 2000 Chevrolet Malibu with a black bra on the front. Its license plate is Las Vegas commemorative plate 22G6.
Roberts said police didn't have any suspects in the case.
Anybody with information on the incident is urged to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 385-5555 or the homicide section at 828-3521.
There is a cash reward of up to $2,000 available for any tips through Crime Stoppers that lead to an arrest.
Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.
