Anti-illegal fireworks push a dud
New site for reporting gets 25,000 grievances
Las Vegas Valley authorities’ campaign to curb the use of illegal fireworks this summer apparently fizzled.
Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Todd Raybuck said Thursday that he believes more prohibited pyrotechnics were launched this July 4 holiday than ever before.
Some 25,000 complaints were submitted to a new illegal fireworks reporting site, the vast majority on Wednesday night. Police issued about 50 citations and arrested one adult who became confrontational.
“Everybody who made a complaint wanted to see success,” Raybuck said. “We couldn’t give it to them.”
The frustration manifested on social media Wednesday night. Some residents used the #Youlightitwewriteit hashtag on Twitter to share complaints paired with photos of fireworks busts and videos of illegal fireworks.
“Figure out how to actually restrict access to the illegal fireworks or this will never get better. An entire city gave a $1000 fine the finger tonight,” tweeted @sarahshabeeks.
Despite authorities’ efforts to use Ispyfireworks.com to reduce call volume to police and fire dispatchers, some 1,300 calls were made to the county’s non-emergency dispatch line on Wednesday. That is about 350 calls more than on July 4 last year.
However, the “You Light It, We Write It” campaign had some bright spots.
Authorities seized more than
2,100 pounds of fireworks, according to Clark County Fire Prevention Inspector Amanda Wildermuth.
And unlike last year, the region’s 911 system did not shut down due to call volume.
Most important, Raybuck said, the large number of reports submitted online shows that many residents want to help stop illegal fireworks. That information has documented when and where fireworks were launched and will assist authorities next year.
FIREWORKS
“I’m gonna rape you,” she said he replied.
Over the next hour, the man slapped her across the face, tried to sexually assault her, ransacked her home of 20 years and eventually shot her with her own gun.
Shevaun had grabbed the .25-caliber antique handgun from underneath her couch during the home invasion, but the man spotted it and wrestled it away from her.
“He told me, ‘I’m gonna have to kill you,’” she said. “I said, ‘Come on, you don’t have to do that.’”
The gun, a gift from her father to her mother was given to her in 1994. She said she had never fired the gun.
Her attacker didn’t use the gun until he was about to leave the house. She thought he was going to leave, but as he turned around, he fired at her.
Shevaun called 911 after he left for good, about 9 a.m.
“I think he was sure he killed me.” Shevaun remembered he had a tattoo of a woman on his arm, and she used the tattoo description to
help police identify a suspect. She credited the detectives who investigated her case for working long, hard hours to identify a suspect.
On Monday, Las Vegas police arrested Herbert Scott Rogers, 53, as a suspect in the attack and arrested him onseveralcharges.
Prosecutors charged Rogers on Thursday with attempted murder, sexual assault, battery, kidnapping, burglary and robbery, all with a deadly weapon. He remained in Clark County Detention Center on $1 million bail.
Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Laz Chavez said at a Thursday briefing that it wasn’t clear whether Shevaun’s house was targeted.
“This was obviously a very terrible crime on some of our most vulnerable,” said Chavez, who oversees Metro’s Downtown Area Command.
Rogers is a registered sex offender, records show. He was convicted of attempted lewdness with a minor in 2002 and was ordered to have lifetime supervision.
He pleaded guilty to a sex offender registration violation in 2007, and to attempted prohibited act by a sex offender in 2013, documents show.