Doughnuts and bullets: Residents say reckless driving has escalated

Reckless driving from a car doing doughnuts at an east Las Vegas intersection late last month escalated to gunfire, according to frustrated residents.

Cars driving recklessly has been an ongoing problem for residents since 2015, they said, leading government officials to propose engineering solutions, like narrowing the roads and placing speed cushions, to make the intersection a less attractive area to race, drift and do doughnuts.

About two dozen residents who live at and near Lamb Boulevard and Hacienda Avenue met Wednesday with Las Vegas police and Clark County government officials at Paradise Community Center, saying that a car had been repeatedly returning to a nearby street to do doughnuts, which refers to a vehicle drifting in tight circles while spinning out its tires in an attempt to create circular skid marks.

Sean, a neighborhood resident who wasn’t at the meeting but who spoke to the Review-Journal on Friday, said the driver of that car fired a gun while doing doughnuts on Nov. 26. Other residents also said shots were fired that day.

Five bullets from that shooting ended up hitting his house, said Sean, who didn’t want his last name published out of fear of retribution. “They almost hit my granddaughter and they almost shot me,” he said.

“I had five rounds that hit my house. Two actually went all the way through,” Sean said. More bullets hit the brick wall near the intersection. He called 911 to report the gunshots.

The Metropolitan Police Department responded to Sean’s home at 3:31 p.m. on Nov. 26 and were conducting an ongoing investigation, Metro officer Robert Wicks said.

“I don’t like calling cops. I don’t like calling anybody,” Sean said. “But when you put my granddaughter’s life in danger, that’s when I get pissed off.”

Residents said during the meeting that they wanted to shoot back at the driver.

Metro Captain Jeff Clark said that police were searching for the driver. Up until Wednesday’s meeting, he said that he was unaware that there were shots fired from the car.

“We have doughnut cars shooting at houses,” said neighborhood resident Steven Vaden.

“So, we’ve never heard about a house being shot at,” Clark said in response to Vaden’s comment during the meeting.

Police knew that one person was doing doughnuts in the intersection, Clark said, but that they haven’t identified that person.

“My office was notified of this particular person or people, but we only know there to be one doing doughnuts in the intersection of Lamb and Hacienda,” Clark said.

“There was one call for service since November 14, and when officers showed up, he was long gone,” said Clark.

Calling 911 and 311

Residents said they have called 911 and 311 several times to report the reckless driving.

Residents, who said police would occasionally respond, said they were told by dispatchers that there was no immediate threat or danger to life, leading them to believe the 911 calls were not prioritized.

Clark encouraged calling 311 for non-emergencies during Wednesday’s meeting. However, that has been unsuccessful too, residents said.

Dee Hinczek, 57, who was at the meeting with her husband Russ Hinczek, 65, said that she tried to call 311 but hung up because it didn’t connect her to a person.

“Trying to call 311 is worthless because you have to sit there for 4 hours before you get somebody,” Sean said.

‘We’ve been complaining since 2015’

Vaden, 50, said the reckless driving has been going on since 2015.

“We have called. We have made numerous attempts to reach out to Public Works and Metro. Everybody’s just at their limit, as far as they don’t think anything will get done,” said Vaden.

When police do show up, it’s often too late and the driver has already fled the area, Vaden said. He said he wants to make this impossible to occur.

The intersection is an attractive area for those looking to drift, said Russ Hinczek.

“That area has great acoustics,” Russ Hinczek said. “Once they rev up, I could start a recording studio and put it there.”

Leaking water at the intersection also makes it attractive area to drift because the roads are more slippery, residents said.

Engineering solutions

Clark County Commissioner James Gibson and Denis Cederberg, the director of the Clark County Public Works Department, discussed possible engineering solutions to prevent street racing.

One of those solutions was narrowing the road so that drivers wouldn’t have space to drift or do doughnuts. Cederberg also discussed putting speed cushions, so that cars would be forced to slow down.

Another solution Cederberg discussed would be to repave the road so that the road’s texture is “wavy,” which would damage tires should anyone use that area to drift.

Gibson, who represents the district the neighborhood is located in, cautioned residents against shooting back at the returning car.

“I don’t know how we didn’t know all of it,” Gibson said. “It’s far better to just report it than to protect your neighbor or anything like that.”

At the end of Wednesday’s meeting, residents were glad they could voice their concerns, but some were skeptical anything would be changed.

“I’m happy that I got to voice my frustrations. I’m still on the fence if anything’s going to happen,” said Vaden.

Contact Annie Vong at avong@reviewjournal.com. Follow @annievwrites on X or @annievong.bsky.social.