Mother of local rapper seeks witnesses after son killed
Nearly four months after a 28-year-old man was left outside a hospital dying from a gunshot wound, his mother is still searching for answers.
Anthony Richards was a proud Las Vegas rapper with thousands of hits on his music videos under the name “Outtatown Boog,” but his greatest aspiration was to be a good dad to 7-year-old Maliyah, according to his mother.
“He was a father first and foremost and I talked to him every day,” Heather Richards said. “He’d never put hands on anyone.”
Anthony Richards died Aug. 15 at Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center from a gunshot wound to the left buttock. and the manner of death was ruled a homicide, according to the Clark County coroner’s office.
Officers were called to the 8800 block of Hickam Avenue around 12:20 a.m. after a party outside a short-term rental turned deadly. Police found more than a dozen shell casings outside the house. The shooting was part of a spate of several fights, shootings and homicides at short-term rentals being used for parties.
No arrest
No one had been arrested in connection with his death as of Wednesday, according the Metropolitan Police Department.
Heather Richards said that her son was the oldest of four boys she raised as a single mom in Portland, Oregon, and that her oldest loved to have fun and make his little brothers laugh. She acknowledged her son was no angel. In fact, he had been in a gang and in trouble with the law, but that he had a compassionate side and told his mother he just wanted to make money to support her and Maliyah.
“I had an accident in 2018 that left me partially paralyzed, so ever since then he said, ‘I’m going to buy you a house,” Heather Richards said. “On Christmas he’d give out hundred dollar bills to different families by posting on Facebook asking who needs help.”
After hearing about the shooting, Heather Richards rushed to Las Vegas from Portland and she said the first thing she did was confront the man who dropped her son off at the hospital, but he had no information for her.
“The way he was dropped off, how he was dropped off and where he was dropped off,” she said. “It was in a bus lane. He wasn’t even on the sidewalk. How foul can you be?”
Several videos from party
Heather Richards said she’s seen several videos from the party, showing dozens of people, but detectives tell her no one is in custody yet. She said she’ll always remember her 6-foot-2 adult son who would call his “momma” in the middle of the night when he was afraid of ghosts and ask her to talk him through it.
“The fact that nobody, not one person from the party, has said a word,” she said. “Not one word has been said and it was a house full of homeboys. I wish somebody would say something.”
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
