Las Vegas homeless face dangers on the street
Tena Adamson sleeps with one eye open and a baseball bat within close reach. Same goes for her boyfriend.
That’s just the way it is living on the streets in Las Vegas, where the fear of becoming a crime victim — everything from physical attacks to robberies and rapes — is part of everyday life.
“I sleep with my protection, and I dare someone to walk up on me because I’ll use it,” Adamson said on a recent afternoon, pointing to a wooden baseball bat sitting in an empty dirt lot downtown.
The dangers faced by the homeless in Las Vegas recently made national headlines after a series of shootings — two of them fatal — targeting street people. In less than three months, Metro Police have already investigated the slayings of five homeless people.
“The thing the general public doesn’t understand is the homeless, as a demographic, they’re always being victimized,” police Lt. Joseph Sobrio said.
Adamson doesn’t need any reminders.
She was camping just a couple blocks away when a gunman walked up early Feb. 2 and fatally shot James Edgar Lewis, 64, who was sleeping under the U.S. 95 overpass on 14th Street.
Adamson said the gunshots woke her from her sleep. It was also a wake-up call for the homeless community, which was left shaken by the death of the man everyone called Pops. He was a downtown fixture who was often seen riding his bike and collecting cans.
Joshua Castellon, 26, who was subsequently arrested on a federal weapons count, faces an arrest warrant on two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder in the shooting of Lewis and three other men apparently