Violent spate of shootings in Las Vegas leaves 3 dead

Shootings claimed the lives of three people, including a 2-year-old boy, and injured a 3-week-old infant during a violent 20-hour stretch in the Las Vegas Valley.

The boy was shot and killed Wednesday morning while children played in a northeast valley apartment, Las Vegas police said.

He died just hours after a shooting left a man dead and an infant hospitalized Tuesday night in another part of the valley. And on Wednesday afternoon, a woman in her 60s was gunned down outside her northwest valley home.

Their deaths marked the 71st, 72nd and 73rd homicides investigated by Metropolitan Police Department this year, and the 85th, 86th and 87th within Clark County this year, Las Vegas Review-Journal records show.

The 2-year-old boy was shot just after 11:50 a.m. Wednesday on the 3900 block of North Nellis Boulevard, near Las Vegas Boulevard North, Metro spokeswoman Laura Meltzer said. Arriving medical personnel pronounced the toddler dead at the scene.

“This is a tragic example of when children are playing with real guns what can happen,” Metro homicide Lt. Ray Spencer told reporters near the apartment complex where the child was shot.

Five boys under age 12, including the victim, were playing in an apartment when one of them shot the toddler, Spencer said. The shooting appears to be accidental, he said, but police are still reviewing evidence.

Police said they believe one boy from another apartment may have brought the handgun over to the home. Investigators also found a toy gun in the bedroom where the child was shot.

The boy who fired the shot was about 10, Spencer said. Investigators are still working to determine how the child got the gun.

After the shot was fired, the toddler’s mother and a neighbor rushed to the bedroom to try to save the boy.

“It became extremely chaotic after the actual shooting occurred, and people were scattering and running all over, as you can imagine,” Spencer said.

Three of the kids in the room, including the one who fired the shot, fled the scene.

Deadly shooting spate

Wednesday morning’s shooting was the second time in less than 24 hours that a small child had been shot in Las Vegas.

A man in his early 40s was killed and his 3-week-old infant was injured Tuesday night in a central valley shooting that stemmed from a domestic dispute.

Police were called at about 7:30 p.m. after receiving reports of a shooting on the 3100 block of Key Largo Drive, near Tropicana Avenue and Pecos Road.

The man who was shot and his girlfriend got into an argument, Spencer said Tuesday night. The woman’s brother, who lives nearby, got a gun and shot the man, he said.

Spencer said the man had been choking the baby when he was shot.

The man and the baby were taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where the man died. The infant is expected to survive, Spencer said.

Police said they believe the girlfriend’s brother fired a single shot, which went through the man’s chest and hit the baby in the stomach.

Woman gunned down

A few hours after the toddler was shot, a woman was shot to death by one of two men who had burglarized her northwest valley home. Her death marked the third homicide in Metro’s jurisdiction since Tuesday night.

Police were called to the 6400 block of Morley Avenue, near Smoke Ranch Road and Torrey Pines Drive, just before 3:30 p.m., Las Vegas police said.

The woman and her husband, both in their 60s, were coming home from lunch when they saw a suspicious vehicle in their driveway, Spencer said. At the same time as the woman got out of her car, two men were leaving her house. One of the men opened fire on the woman, killing her. She died at the scene.

“It’s an absolutely disturbing call,” Spencer told reporters Wednesday evening at the scene.

The men then fled in the vehicle.

Police have not made any arrests and have little information on the men. The woman’s husband was the only witness to the shooting.

“We are going to work this nonstop and make sure we get these people into custody,” Spencer said.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter. Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.