Police say shooting site near gang home
One suspect in girl’s death still on loose
A North Las Vegas home sprayed by more than 20 bullets in a botched gang-retaliation shooting sits near “a known gang house,” a newly released police document shows.
Police have not disclosed the location of the home that five suspects had intended to target Nov. 1, but an identical arrest report for two additional suspects taken into custody last week indicates a gang house is located north of the Erives family home at 6705 Courtney Michelle St., where 11-year-old Angelina Erives was fatally shot while she and her family were working on a science project.
On Tuesday, police spokesman Aaron Patty declined to disclose what action, if any, had been taken against the suspected gang house prior to the shooting.
Four of the five wanted suspects have been identified as Erin Deshawn Lynn Hines, 17; Guy Lee Banks
III, 19; Damion Dill, 16; and Jarquan Tiffith, 20. The fifth suspect, whom investigators have not publicly identified, remained at large as of Tuesday, Patty said. The department has not released his description, citing the ongoing investigation.
Banks died from a gunshot wound. The other suspects face charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder. Court records show the charges against Dill and Tiffith also have deadly weapon-gang enhancements, which would carry longer sentences if they were convicted.
SHOOTING
‘Detectives will not rest’
At a press conference Thursday announcing the arrests of Dill and Tiffith, Assistant Police Chief Pamela Ojeda said, “We will continue to hunt down the third suspect, and our detectives will not rest until he is apprehended and justice is brought to this family.”
Five members of the Erives family were inside the house when the gunfire erupted, but Angelina was the only person struck. She died of multiple gunshot wounds, including two to her head, according to police.
Hines and Banks were the first to be identified as suspects in the shooting after a silver 2007 Nissan Altima, which brought the suspects to the neighborhood, broke down shortly after the shooting about 2 miles away near Commerce Street and El Campo Grande Avenue. The other three suspects had abandoned the car after a neighbor shot at the Nissan with his legally owned handgun, striking Banks in the head.
Banks later died from his injuries at a local hospital. Hines was arrested the night of the shooting and admitted to detectives he had been behind the wheel of the Nissan.
Suspected trigger men identified
The arrest report for Dill and Tiffith, released Tuesday morning by the North Las Vegas Justice Court, identified the pair and the at-large suspect as the suspected trigger men who shot into the residence in retaliation “for the recent Club Lit shooting,” detectives wrote in the report. Police have not disclosed details of that shooting, but a hookah lounge called Club Lit is located near Craig Road and Allen Lane in North Las Vegas.
On Nov. 4, a warranted search of the Nissan was conducted, eventually leading investigators to Dill, Tiffith and the third alleged shooter, the arrest report shows.
Inside a pocket on the back of thedriverseat,detectivesfound a black wallet with identification cards. The heavily redacted report does not state which suspect owned the wallet. According to the report, detectives ran a records check on the name, revealing an active felony arrest warrant for burglary. That suspect also was flagged as a documentedgangmember.
Clark County District Court records show Tiffith was on probation for an attempted burglary case at the time of the shooting. The case has since been reopened, according to those records.
The day after detectivessearchedthe Nissan, they brought a copy of the driver’s license photo found inside the wallet to the Clark County Detention Center, wherehineswasjailedafterhewas charged as an adult. Hines identified the person in the photo as one of the alleged shooters, the report said.
Investigators also monitored several of Hines’ recorded jail phone calls, which led them to the Facebook profiles of the remaining suspects. Las Vegas gang detectives also assisted North Las Vegas police in identifying the suspects, the report shows.
A Gofundme campaign had raised more than $55,000 for Angelina’s family by Tuesday morning.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.