Man is accused of killing man, leaving him to bleed to death

A man with four felony convictions has been accused of killing a man and leaving him to bleed to death.

Gerald Jerome Polk, 38, is charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon and five counts of ownership or possession of a firearm by a prohibited person after allegedly shooting a man and driving off in a black Mercedes-Benz.

According to an arrest report, Henderson police discovered the body of Angel Thompson, 32, in a pool of blood on the porch of Polk’s Lakewood Cove apartment early Friday morning.

In the report, an investigator for the Clark County coroner’s office said Thompson had one bullet wound to his left buttock and upper hip.

Police found that Polk was renting the apartment, at 1100 Center St., and issued a search warrant, the report said. In the apartment, police found narcotics paraphernalia; cocaine; marijuana; prescription pills; hashish; and ammunition.

The report says detectives traced Polk and his longtime girlfriend to 536 Holick Ave. in Henderson. They arrested Polk after seeing him exit the residence.

A search warrant for the second residence was issued, and police found multiple firearms, including three handguns, an AK-47 rifle and a 9mm rifle and six large jars of marijuana.

The report says Polk made statements that placed him at the scene of the crime; he said he knew Thompson had been shot and that he had a firearm the night before the homicide.

He told detectives he later fired his weapon into the air while walking down Warm Springs Road to foil gunshot residue tests. The shots, he thought, would deflect from gunshot residue that may have been on his hands from the homicide.

Contact Brooke Wanser at bwanser@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Bwanser_LVRJ on Twitter.