Teen fatally shot after fight at basketball court near West Las Vegas Library
A 17-year-old boy was chased down and fatally shot after a fight on a basketball court Sunday evening near the West Las Vegas Library, police said.
The teen was shot multiple times during the 5 p.m. incident in a parking lot near the library, at 951 W. Lake Mead Blvd., Metro homicide Lt. Dan McGrath said. The boy died less than a half-hour later at University Medical Center’s trauma center.
Just minutes before the shooting, a Metropolitan Police Department sergeant had been at the basketball court, handing out stickers and baseball cards to kids, police said.
“Who brings guns to a basketball court?” McGrath said, adding, ”We have a really distressed parent at UMC.”
Metro’s Bolden Area Command Capt. Robert Plummer said the shooting had left pastors, who were at the hospital with friends and family of the teen, “shaken to their core.”
He urged the shooter or shooters to turn themselves in to their pastor or a Metro substation.
“We can’t continue to have young lives lost,” Plummer said.
Plummer said violence among young people is a community problem as well as a police problem.
“Know where your kids are,” Plummer said. “Know that they aren’t armed.”
McGrath said several witnesses ran after shots were fired. He asked them to come forward to police.
Anyone with information on the shooting can call Metro’s homicide section at 702-828-3521 or Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555 to remain anonymous.
The Clark County coroner will release the teen’s name after his next of kin has been notified.
Contact Max Michor at mmichor@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @MaxMichor on Twitter.
