Police: Victim of shooting near middle school had angered gunman with house visit

By Pashtana Usufzy

Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015 | 11 p.m.

A husband and wife accused in a shooting near a Las Vegas middle school Tuesday that left a man brain dead knew the victim, according to a Metro Police arrest report.

Police received multiple calls about 10:40 a.m. Tuesday of a shooting between a newer black SUV with tinted windows and a white Honda Civic in the area of West Smoke Ranch Road and North Jones Boulevard, near Harold J. Brinley Middle School, according to the report.

The Civic had at least four bullet holes in the driver side and had crashed into a pole, police said.

The man driving suffered at least one gunshot wound and was taken to University Medical Center, police said.

He is brain dead and not expected to survive, police said.

Officers arrested 32-year-old Tyrone Pedro Bell and 28-year-old Ashley Carswell on charges of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit murder, discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle and discharging a firearm into a motor vehicle, police said.

Bell also faces an additional charge of assault with a firearm.

Police investigating the shooting were contacted by the victim's uncle, who had heard the vehicle description and told officials his nephew was having issues with a male who drove a similar SUV, according to the report.

Bell's roommate had purchased a shotgun from the victim, and the house Bell lived in is less than a mile from the scene of the shooting, according to police.

The victim and his uncle had visited the house weeks earlier to try to collect money owed for the gun, and the roommate had been cordial and promised to have the money soon, according to the uncle and roommate.

Bell, however, was upset with how the victim had approached his vehicle weeks earlier and followed the victim and his uncle to a dollar store parking lot, which the pair decided to pull into because there were security cameras, according to police.

The uncle told police Bell pulled out a handgun and told them to stay away from his residence or he would kill them, the report said.

Bell's roommate told police the victim came to his house about 10 a.m. Tuesday and tried to sell him an amplifier, according to the report.

The victim left when the roommate said he didn't have the money, and shortly after, Bell and his wife, Carswell, left the house with Carswell driving and Bell in the passenger seat, police said.

According to the roommate's statements, Bell said he was going to get the victim because he visited the house, police said.

About 45 minutes later, the roommate received a text message asking him to open the garage, and the husband and wife returned home in the black Ford Explorer, according to the report.

An empty extended magazine for a .45-caliber weapon was found in the vehicle, and a partially loaded extended magazine was in Carswell's purse, police said.

Bell had a black .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun that he threw out his window when police visited the house, according to the report.

At least eight .45-caliber cartridge cases were found in the street following the shooting, police said.

Both Bell and Carswell have denied their involvement in the shooting to police, according to the report.