Worker finds dead man in drain

A dead man with a gunshot wound to his head was found in a storm or sewer drain Monday evening on Tropicana Avenue near the Las Vegas Beltway.

Lt. Lewis Roberts of the Metropolitan Police Department said a worker who was placing barricades on the street first noticed what appeared to be a sports jersey. When the worker looked more closely, though, he saw there was a body. Police were called to the scene about 6:18 p.m., Roberts said.

Roberts said police hadn't removed the body as of about 9:30 p.m. The drain was about eight feet below ground level on Tropicana Avenue just west of the beltway.

Roberts didn't know the man's approximate age. Noting the gunshot wound, he said the man might have been the victim of a homicide.

He said he suspected that the body hadn't been there very long.

Investigators who arrived at the scene spoke to someone who heard gunshots in the area about 6 p.m.