Boy, 17, dies after he was shot at North Las Vegas stoplight
A 17-year-old boy died overnight Saturday after exchanging gunfire with a driver at a red light, North Las Vegas police said.
When officers were requested at 10:30 p.m. Saturday to investigate a possible crash near Civic Center Drive and Evans Avenue, they instead found a boy behind the wheel of a white pickup truck suffering from at least one gunshot wound. Police said he had crashed into a tree in the center median after he was shot.
He was taken to University Medical Center’s trauma unit, where he died.
As of Sunday morning, North Las Vegas homicide investigators could describe only the other vehicle involved as a dark-colored sedan, whose driver was seen pulling up next to the 17-year-old boy’s vehicle before the shooting.
The two drivers spoke briefly, police said, before gunfire was exchanged. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the two knew each other, but North Las Vegas police spokesman Eric Leavitt said early Sunday police do not think the shooting was a random act of violence.
The sedan was last seen driving south on Civic Center Drive.
The Clark County coroner’s office will release the boy’s identity once his family has been notified. His death marked the fifth homicide in Clark County this year, and the North Las Vegas Police Department’s first homicide investigation of 2018.
Homicide detectives seek the public’s help in this case. Anyone with information may call the department at 702-633-9111 or Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Rio Lacanlale contributed to this report.