Victim: Gunman killed for cash

The cold look in the eyes of the man who held the gun to her face is what Erica remembers.

"Where is the money?" he asked.

"I don't know," Erica told him, "but you don't have to do this."

Then he shot her.

The gunman fired twice in quick succession -- striking the 20-year-old's jaw and nose -- before leaving her for dead in the bedroom of an east valley apartment.

Someone had already put four bullets in her friend Norman Mayes, who rented the apartment. As the suspect who shot her passed through the living room, she said he shot Mayes a fifth time. A good-measure bullet, she said, to the center of her friend's face.

More than a month and several surgeries later, Erica, who asked that her last name be withheld, still has nightmares about what happened. She hasn't felt safe since the Oct. 26 shooting, fearing that the gunman would find her and "finish her off."

She may finally be able to relax.

On Wednesday, Dashod Reed, 19, was arrested by Las Vegas police in connection with Mayes' death and Erica's shooting. He faces charges of murder with a deadly weapon, attempted murder with a deadly weapon, robbery, burglary and conspiracy to commit murder.

The shootings happened at Pacific Harbors at Sunrise apartments, 5150 E. Sahara Ave., near Nellis Boulevard.

According to the police report, Mayes was a small-time marijuana dealer who sometimes flashed his money to other residents in the apartment complex.

Erica told police she and Mayes were smoking marijuana in Mayes' bedroom when two men came to the door. One wore large, fake diamond earrings.

She stayed in the bedroom as the men talked in the living room. She told police the two men tried to sell Mayes a laptop computer. Mayes declined the offer. Erica then heard Mayes ask them what they were doing later.

The suspect Erica later identified as Reed to police then said something like "get the money." After a pause, she heard Mayes say, "It did not have to go like this." She then heard four gunshots.

Reed then entered the bedroom and asked Erica where the money was. She told him she didn't know -- a truthful answer, she stressed -- and he shot her anyway.

"I looked him square in the eye and told him the truth," she said. "It didn't matter."

After the suspects left the apartment several minutes later, Erica was able to walk out of the bedroom. She found Mayes' body, called police and managed to drive to her father's home.

She acknowledged Mayes had been selling marijuana, a crime, but said that didn't justify what happened to him.

"He was a killer, plain and simple," Erica said of Reed. "Killing for money."

Reed was first linked to the shooting by witness statements to police. When Reed was questioned, he denied being present during the shooting. He also said several people were in Mayes' apartment and that he didn't know any of them, the police report said. He told police he left before shots were fired.

In another interview several weeks later, police confronted Reed with phone records of his calls to Mayes and Erica's statement identifying him as the suspect who shot her. Reed then told police he was outside the apartment when gunshots were fired, according to the report. He also denied shooting either victim and said his cousin, Leon Jackson, was the last man in the apartment before shots were fired.

The arrest report states there were at least two weapons -- a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun and a revolver -- used in the shooting. The report also said Reed was friends with Mayes' son, who lives out-of-state, and had even lived with their family for a short time.

The report does not list the names of other possible suspects.

Erica still has bullet fragments in her neck and is missing several teeth. She feels self-conscious now but that doesn't compare to the dread she experienced before a shooting suspect was arrested, she said. "I guess I can't live in fear forever."

Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.