Man charged with murder in April shooting at Las Vegas apartments

A 39-year-old man was arrested after allegedly shooting the father of his girlfriend’s son last month, according to Las Vegas police documents.

Ronald Beattie was arrested May 13 after a barricade situation at an east Las Vegas apartment complex, in connection with an April 27 fatal shooting. Beattie is suspected of shooting Lorenzo Price, also 39, last month when Price went to drop off his 4-year-old son with the boy’s mother, according to Beattie’s arrest report.

At least two witnesses told police they saw two men arguing outside an apartment at Harmon Hills, 5421 E. Harmon Ave., when one of the men shot the other.

One witness told police he saw Price talking with a woman near the apartment’s pool, and then saw another man come out of the apartment.

The man said that “based on how the victim and the shooter were posturing and staring each other down,” he thought “they might be getting ready to go fight.”

The witness then saw the man who came out of the apartment shoot at Price, who jumped into his car. When the man walked toward Price, he ran from his car and the shooter, who continued firing, the report said.

Price collapsed in the parking lot, where officers found him suffering from a gunshot wound to the back, the Metropolitan Police Department has said. The Clark County coroner’s office ruled his death a homicide.

Detectives were able to identify Beattie as a suspect after speaking with the woman who had been talking with Price before the shooting.

She initially denied that she witnessed the shooting but eventually told police she saw her boyfriend of “a few weeks” shoot at Price. Cellphone records also placed Beattie at the apartment complex when Price was shot.

On April 30, investigators spoke with the girlfriend of Price’s roommate. She told police that Price was having an “on again/off again” relationship with the mother of his child, which made the mother’s “new boyfriend jealous.”

The barricade situation on May 13, on the 2200 block of Diamond Pointe Street, near Nellis Boulevard and Carey Avenue, happened after Beattie and another person inside the home refused to answer investigators’ calls. A SWAT team was called after police failed to “coax” Beattie out of the home, the report said.

He eventually surrendered to SWAT officers and crisis negotiators, Metro said.

Beattie has been charged with murder with a deadly weapon, and he remained in the Clark County Detention Center on Wednesday with $175,000 bail, court records show. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 13.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.