Suspect arrested in alleged gang-related killing in North Las Vegas

A 24-year-old man was arrested in North Las Vegas on Sunday in connection with what police said was a deadly gang-related shooting from last month.

Police responded to a shooting near East Webb Avenue and Davis Place at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 6, police said. According to Dean Coleman’s recently released arrest report, three people who were “either members or associates of the GPK Gang” had been shot at an apartment.

The three victims were taken to University Medical Center where the Clark County coroner’s office said 17-year-old Mekhi Clark died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Police said video surveillance showed that Coleman, 24, and another unidentified man drove up and parked outside the apartment before running up and shooting at the group, according to the arrest report.

“Dean Coleman is a known Piru Blood and HTO gang member,” the report said, adding that the founder of the HTO gang was murdered by a GPK member at a GPK party on Jan. 1.

The Metropolitan Police Department received a tip on Jan. 5 that stated Coleman was upset about the murder and “he would kill the person responsible and was prepared to do serious prison time for it,” the report said. Crime Stoppers got a separate tip saying Coleman “had been shooting people out of revenge.”

Police said Coleman posted on Facebook hinting that he was going to kill the people involved in the murder, according to the report. The license plate of the car involved in the shooting was registered to Coleman, but when police interviewed him he said it was his uncle’s car and he denied being involved with a gang.

When officers searched Coleman’s home, they found a gun in his nightstand with the same ammunition that was found at the scene of the shooting, the report said. When searching his phone, police found texts showing that he was trying to sell the gun the day after the shooting.

He was arrestedon charges of owning a firearm as a prohibited person, but police said in the report that he posted bail on Feb. 16 and was released from jail.

Police would not say if they had identified the other man in Coleman’s car, citing the ongoing investigation.

Police compared cartridge casings from the scene of the shooting to the ammunition in Coleman’s gun on Feb. 11 and found that his gun was involved in the shooting, the report said.

Coleman was rearrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges of murder with a deadly weapon, attempted murder with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit murder, battery with a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm, assault with a deadly weapon and firing a gun into an occupied structure, jail records show. He is being held without bail.

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.