Monday, March 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
North Las Vegas has gone three months without a murder, the first time in two decades that police can remember this happening.
On average, there are two murders a month in the city of more than 70,000 people that has a reputation, deserved or not, for crime. Last year at this time, six murders already had been committed.
Police are thrilled with the turn of events.
Lt. Chris Larotonda, North Las Vegas Police spokesman, said, "It's great. We're hoping for four months."
Larotonda has been with the department for 18 years. He said he can't ever remember going this long without a murder.
"We're almost afraid to say anything about it because we figure a hex will be put upon us," Larotonda said.
The last murder in North Las Vegas was Dec. 13, when 36-year-old Kemuel Wright was shot to death and a friend injured inside a convenience store in the 3000 block of Las Vegas Boulevard North. The gunman fled on foot.
Sgt. Ed Finizie, who heads the detective bureau, agreed that the absence of homicides is out of the norm.
"I don't have an explanation for it," he said. "It goes in spurts. The problem with trying to explain why you don't have a murder is like trying to explain why you do have one."
Finizie did say, however, that alcohol is always a contributing factor, as well as warm weather, when tempers run hot.
The lull for his detectives, who also investigate other crimes, has allowed them to catch up on paperwork.
"We're catching up on past cases, organizing the files, doing all the mundane things of running an office that are the first things that suffer when you're running to a homicide," Finizie said.
archive
