Western student held in shooting

Las Vegas police arrested a Western High School sophomore on campus Wednesday in connection with a shooting earlier in the week that left a 16-year-old classmate seriously injured.

A police report names Tevin O'Neal Carr as the gunman responsible for leaving Victor Bravo in a pool of blood near Gibson Middle School on Monday afternoon. A source said Carr is 16.

The shooting was the third in 11 days near a public school campus as students were walking home.

Police believe that Bravo was shot multiple times by Carr after trying to help a friend who was being assaulted by five young men near Washington Avenue and Chabot Drive, which is west of Valley View Boulevard, according to the report.

A woman who answered the phone at Carr's house and identified herself as his mother declined to comment Wednesday.

Las Vegas police Capt. Kirk Primas said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon that preliminary information indicated the shooting was not gang-related, and that it and the fight leading up to it stemmed from previous verbal altercations between students at Western.

"We believe at this point that this was an isolated incident. It was not anything that would be considered a gang incident," Primas said.

However, the police report indicates there might have been gang members involved in the melee in which Bravo was injured.

The report said an unidentified male with Carr said "Rolling 60s, Rolling 60s" during the fighting. It said the shout was in reference to the Rolling 60s Crips, a local street gang active in Las Vegas whose members have been charged with crimes as serious as murder. The report also said that Carr's backpack was searched by police at Western on Tuesday, and that it contained multiple gang-related tags and etchings.

Primas could not be reached to define how and when police classify a shooting as gang-related.

A witness who was with Bravo during the fight told the Review-Journal on Monday at University Medical Center, where he was waiting to learn how Bravo had fared in surgery, that neither he nor Bravo is a gang member.

That statement was repeated by Bravo's father Wednesday.

The witness also said he believed the shooting was sparked by a fight a few days earlier at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant. He said Bravo and he were not involved in that fight.

The police report didn't indicate that either Bravo or the friends he was walking with Monday afternoon had any gang ties.

According to the report, the incident began about 2:22 p.m. Monday, only 11 minutes after Gibson Middle School let out for the day. Bravo was waiting to pick up his younger brother from Gibson, his friends said earlier in the week.

The fight began when a black teenager, later identified as Carr, approached one of Bravo's friends and asked him "if he was one of the guys that jumped his friend," the report said.

Bravo's friend replied that he didn't know what he was talking about. In the report, Carr is alleged to have said, "It doesn't matter, we'll beat your ass anyway."

At that point, Bravo's friend told Carr that if he wanted to fight, he shouldn't be a coward, and they should do so one on one, the report said.

That's when the pair began fighting, which drew a large crowd, and Bravo's friend gained the upper hand. When Carr's companions realized this, they began assaulting Bravo's friend five on one, the report said.

Several bystanders, including Bravo, then joined the fight helping Bravo's friend, the report said. The report said several witnesses said they saw an unknown Hispanic male wielding a knife.

Immediately after joining the fight, Carr pointed a semi-automatic handgun at Bravo, who was standing less than five feet from him. Bravo began running northbound on Chabot toward the school and heard several gunshots, the report said.

Although many Western students said the fight stemmed from racial tensions between certain black and Hispanic students, police did not suggest race as a motive behind the shooting.

As a result of the shooting, Bravo sustained wounds to the "mid-line of the abdomen, lower back, as well as the right arm," the report said.

Bravo's father said Wednesday afternoon that his son was shot twice, once in the stomach and once in the right shoulder. Both of the bullets exited Bravo's body through his back, his father said.

Police recovered four 9mm shell casings at the scene, the report said.

The report indicated that Carr was arrested after Bravo identified him from a photo lineup from his hospital bed with 99 percent certainty.

One of Bravo's friends also identified Carr as the instigator of the fight Monday.

A Western female student told police that she saw Carr fighting with another student. She also identified multiple items of clothing Carr was said to have been wearing by witnesses.

Review-Journal writer Lisa Kim Bach contributed to this report. Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-4638.