Parents of boy who shot self charged
Complaint alleges they left weapon where 4-year-old could get it
The parents of the 4-year-old boy who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in August will face criminal charges, the Clark County district attorney’s office announced Friday.
The shooting happened just before 2 p.m. Aug. 1 on the 9500 block of Chandler Springs Avenue in the southwest Las Vegas Valley. Police said the boy, Bradley Whitis, was taken to University Medical Center’s trauma unit, where he died less than an hour later.
His parents, Ronald and Kimberly Whitis, each face one count of child abuse and neglect. Ronald Whitis also has been charged with one count of child abuse and neglect with substantial bodily harm.
The criminal complaint alleged that the boy’s parents left one of their guns unsecured in a downstairs bedroom. Their son found the gun when nobody else was in the room, it said.
“These types of cases are so tragic, and charging the parents with a crime is one of the most difficult decisions we, as prosecutors, have to make,”
WHITIS
Fiore said before the City Council approved the vision plan this week. “It’s very important we understand Ward 6 is different from the rest of your wards.”
Ward 6 is home to roughly 118,000 by 2016 estimates — the city’s most populous ward. While Ward 6 has seen rapid growth, it is home to pockets of more rural living. Durango Drive gives way from a growing commercial center just off U.S. Highway 95 to a residential area with horse-crossing signs and finally to the end of the road: a vast expanse of open desert flanked by mountains.
Working with others
The city’s team engaged representatives from the BLM, the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, the National Park Service and Protectors of Tule Springs in creating the new vision plan.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area spokeswoman Christie Vanover said the park’s superintendent and other National Park Service staff have been involved in planning and development meetings with the city “to provide information about the monument to help create a plan that balances protection and growth.”
The Las Vegas Paiute Golf Course is northwest of the 1,000 acres, and residential developments lie to the southeast, south of Moccasin Road, at the outskirts of Las Vegas.
The 1,000-acre swath could become the northwest ward’s 12th master-planned community, guided by the new vision plan, the city’s acting Planning Director Robert Summerfield said.
The city could work through the BLM process to acquire the land and make it available for development, or it could be put up for auction, Summerfield said.
The plan calls for different types of housing, shopping and community areas that go beyond “the typical suburban model.” Pockets of development would be connected with and surrounded by trails that also follow the wash and connect to the national monument. The plan envisions a future connection to U.S. 95 from the property, just south of the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Course. Retail centers within walking or biking distance from homes would aim to reduce the “ecological impact of development through reduced vehicular miles traveled,” the plan says.
Contact Jamie Munks at jmunks@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @Jamiemunksrj on Twitter.