‘Breaks my heart’: Neighbors say North Las Vegas shooting shattered tranquil community
An investigation into the deaths of three women, along with an armed man killed by police at a North Las Vegas apartment complex was ongoing Wednesday, authorities said.
North Las Vegas police wrote in a statement Tuesday that two of its officers shot the man after he began walking toward them and disobeyed orders to drop a gun.
The Clark County coroner’s office identified him Wednesday as Edward Brooks, 43, of North Las Vegas.
Officers looking for possible shooting victims found the women’s bodies and an unharmed child — as well as a dead dog — in two separate apartments.
A 911 dispatcher taking a report of gunfire in the 2200 block of East Nelson Avenue about 3:15 p.m. heard gunshots in the background, police said.
Police did not say how the women died or how they may have been connected to Brooks, who was shot in the courtyard but noted that detectives “do not believe there are any additional suspects.”
The women’s names and their causes and manner of death will be released by the coroner’s office. Meanwhile, police said they are expecting to release additional details in the coming days.
The small, two-story, “3 Keys” apartment complex where the shooting occurred is tucked within a neighborhood dotted with houses near Las Vegas Boulevard North and East Carey Avenue.
On Wednesday afternoon, private security officers guarded the entrance while a worker grabbed supplies from a “hazardous material removal” truck.
Two strands of torn red police tape were attached to nearby fixtures.
Longtime neighborhood residents who spoke to the Las Vegas Review-Journal Wednesday recounted the moment the peace in their tranquil community was shattered.
Roberto Valdez, 77, has lived in a house at an adjoining street for three decades.
The Vietnam war Army veteran said he stepped outside after he heard four gunshots pop off.
“In 15 minutes, there was about 50 cop cars all the way around this block,” said Valdez, later adding: “It breaks my heart, man — breaks my heart — makes me want to cry, because I’ve been to a war zone, and I know how losing somebody is.”
While he’s seen police activity in the neighborhood in the past, he described living in peace.
“It has been a long, long, long stretch since something has happened, and then this happened, and this is the biggest one of them all,” Valdez said.
Maria Munoz, her adult daughter, and her three grandchildren, who she was watching over, live on Valdez’s street.
The shots triggered “fear, mortification and worry, because we didn’t know what was happening,” she said in Spanish.
“When I heard the shots, I worried because there are kids in the neighborhood, and no one knows what could happen,” she added.
While Munoz didn’t know the victims, she described the deaths were a “sad tragedy.”
The grandmother has lived in the neighborhood for 22 years.
“It was very tranquil until yesterday,” she said.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Review-Journal reporter David Wilson contributed to this story.
