Saturday, July 8, 2017 | 2 a.m.
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Keon Miller
Before the fatal encounter, 30-year-old Marquian Hearring, who had reportedly been drinking all day, picked fights, brandished a gun and threatened people at a northeast valley apartment complex, where revelers were out celebrating the Fourth of July.
Hearring’s final confrontation led to a hail of bullets — mostly shot by Keon Miller, who he’d just upset — which sent rounds flying through apartments, leaving Hearring dead, a bystander wounded and Miller facing a murder charge, according to Metro Police.
Miller, 29, had claimed self-defense, but later a police investigation determined that Miller’s life — or that of his family — was not in imminent danger because instead of picking up a phone and calling 911 after Hearring had either walked away or was chased from his apartment, he opted to follow him through the complex, firing rounds from his assault-style SKS rifle, police said.
Witness statements suggest that Miller fired first and that Hearring, who fired twice, was possibly down when Miller fired again from about 6 feet away, police said.
The two men did not know each other.
Stray bullets
About 12:40 a.m. July 5, Miller called 911 to report that he’d shot someone in the 4300 block of Lamont Street, near Cheyenne Avenue and Nellis Boulevard, police said. Officers arrived to find Hearring gravely wounded with multiple gunshots, and a bystander with a graze wound to his calf.
Detectives found Hearring’s gun in a dumpster, and rifle bullet holes in at least three apartments and in a concrete post near the pool area, police said. No one else was injured.
Hearring’s erratic behavior began the previous day.
He had earlier argued with a man but had apparently later resolved it, a woman who lived with Hearring at the complex told detectives. But just prior to the shooting, he’d also argued with someone he accidentally bumped into at a convenience store.
The man who was injured in the shooting told detectives that before the gunfire, Hearring had threatened him with a gun when the man refused to share his fireworks.
Hours earlier, Metro officers had been dispatched to the complex regarding a man, apparently Hearring, brandishing a gun. They walked the complex but couldn’t locate him or get residents to further cooperate, police said. So they left.
Fatal encounter
The beginning of the fatal contact occurred at Miller’s apartment building, where Hearring had showed up asking the whereabout of “old guy.”
The apartment was upstairs and Hearring was on the first floor, police said.
Perplexed and worried because there were kids in his apartment, Miller and a family member asked him to leave.
But he refused to leave, Miller told detectives. “I’ll get to bustin’ yo house,” he said about shooting up the apartment, as he waved the gun.
Details on what occurred next were murky, as the family member said Hearring started making his way up the stairs when Miller went to grab his rifle then chased Hearring away, according to the report.
Hearring left but Miller still followed him through the complex, police said. The first rifle shots came from at least 25 feet away, the injured witness told police. Detectives believe this was when Hearring returned fire, shooting two rounds.
After possibly striking Hearring, who, according to another witness, had gone down or was going down, Miller got within 6 feet of him shot at him again.
Difficulty of self-defense cases
The investigation is ongoing, Metro Lt. Dan McGrath said on Friday. When there’s a self-defense claim, detectives meticulously probe all facts and circumstances. Although Hearring had brandished a gun earlier in the day and moments before the shooting, Miller still had an opportunity to call police, since Hearring no longer was in the vicinity.
But he followed him, 75 to 100 yards through the complex, McGrath said. “Once you leave your residence and follow somebody (even if gunfire is exchanged), we didn’t believe it met the self-defense standard,” he said.
Further witness statements, as well as surveillance images that are being evaluated, might provide a different picture, but as it stood Friday, there was probable cause to hold Miller on a murder count.
Some self-defense cases are clear cut, and others, such as this, can fall in a gray area, McGrath said. “We spend a lot of time reviewing (them).”
Miller cooperated with police by calling them, handing over the rifle and speaking to detectives, but his statements differed from those of witnesses and from what evidence at the scene showed, police said.
As a gun owner, “you’re responsible for what happens” when you pull the trigger, McGrath said.
Detectives believe it was a round he fired — one of at least 10 — that injured the bystander, and his other bullets also tore through stucco walls, McGrath said.
Previous firearm history
Miller on Friday remained booked at the Clark County Detention Center on a $1 million bail.
In 2014, Miller was arrested on six counts of discharging a firearm at an undisclosed east valley apartment complex, according to a Metro arrest report.
A neighbor who heard arguing between a couple, then gunshots, called 911, police said. Arriving officers found bullet impacts outside the caller’s apartment.
Miller’s girlfriend told investigators that during a fight, he’d pushed over a television, kicked a puppy and threatened to shoot it, police said. He then fired rounds through a window, picked up the bullet casings and left.
He turned himself in about a week later but denied the allegations, saying a not-clearly identified friend had fired Miller’s gun, police said.
The case was dismissed the following month, according to court logs. Miller was not a restricted gun owner at the time of this week’s fatal shooting.
His next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday morning.
