Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Police: Store clerk who shot transient man could have avoided incident

Anthony Wright

Anthony Wright

The shooting suspect conceded to North Las Vegas detectives that he could have handled the incident differently.

In an alternate scenario, police would have hauled away a supposed trespasser from his convenience store, and that would’ve ended the conflict.

Instead, the 7-Eleven clerk, Anthony Wright, was in handcuffs, while the transient man he was initially trying to kick out Wednesday morning was in the hospital, recovering from a gunshot wound.

A declaration of arrest released Thursday outlines how an argument in the store at 801 Lake Mead Boulevard turned into a fight, and later a shooting.

The victim entered the store at 5:02 a.m. and was recognized by Wright, who was seen on surveillance video waving his hands, police said.

Wright later told detectives that he’d trespassed the man before and that when he tried to kick him out again, the man “challenged” him to go outside.

Once outside, Wright was caught on video pulling out a gun and pointing it at the man’s head, police said. But the man wasn’t deterred and a physical fight ensued.

Wright, who was injured in the fight, told detectives that the man stabbed him with an unknown object.

Wright went back inside to treat his injuries, and the man remained outside, while continuing to be “verbally aggressive,” police said. A woman known to Wright went outside to grab his shoe but was confronted by the man, police said.

The woman went back inside, and the man began to walk away, police said. But Wright followed him to the 2000 block of Las Vegas Boulevard North.

The men met again near a bus stop, Wright told police. According to Wright, he was trying to get the man to come back to the scene of the fight to “answer” to police.

“Oh, you didn’t get enough,” Wright said he was told by the man. That’s when he opened fire, hitting him in the leg, police said.

Wright returned to the store and tossed the gun in a trash can, which police recovered.

But police said Wright had two opportunities to avoid violence: Once when the man first entered the store, and then when he pursued him before the shooting.

There were officers in the area who were responding to reports of the fight, and Wright admitted seeing them. He could have easily waved one of them down, police said.

Instead, “he took matters into his own hands.”

Wright was being held at the city of Las Vegas jail on counts of attempted murder, possession of a gun by a prohibited person — which was stolen — and attempting to destroy or conceal evidence, jail logs show.