Two arrested in connection with apartment shooting deny involvement

By Brian Nordli

Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2013 | 11:01 a.m.

Two men were arrested in connection with a shooting Tuesday that left one person dead and two others injured inside an apartment.

Matthew Washington Jr., 23, and Martell Moten, 22, were booked into the Clark County Detention Center on one count of murder with a deadly weapon, three counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon and six counts of discharging a firearm into an occupied structure.

A Metro Police arrest report indicates the following:

Metro responded at about 4:35 a.m. to a report of someone shot in apartment 18 at 2655 Sherwood St. Officers arrived to find Nathan Rawls dead in the living room with a gunshot wound to his back. Thirteen bullet holes riddled the front of the apartment, and 13 shell casings from a 9 mm gun and a .40-caliber gun littered the courtyard.

Two other victims inside the apartment, sitting on a love seat inside the living room, had been shot in their left ankles; a fourth person found sleeping in a back room of the home was unharmed.

After the shooting, a nearby resident reported seeing a silver Dodge Magnum driving west through the alley of the apartment complex to Van Patten Street. Police pulled the vehicle over and found Washington Jr. and Moten inside with two guns — a 9 mm caliber Smith & Wesson and a .44-caliber Glock Model 22.

Both men denied any involvement and claimed they were sitting in the vehicle outside the apartment while the other did the shooting.

Moten and Washington Jr. will appear in court Nov. 7 for their preliminary hearing.