Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

4 arrested in weekend Strip shootings; 3 are from California

Metro Police on Tuesday night announced multiple arrests in a pair of shootings on the Las Vegas Strip early Saturday. Four people were injured, including three innocent bystanders. 

Both shootings stemmed from fights, one which hadn’t been disclosed until Tuesday. Three of the four suspects live in California.

“We’ve seen the issue, we’re dealing with the issue and we’re responding to the issue,” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo told the Sun this week about the recent increase in violent acts in the tourist corridor. 

Morris Fields was arrested Tuesday on one count each of battery with a deadly weapon resulting in substantial bodily harm, and discharging a gun where a person might be endangered, Las Vegas Justice Court records show. 

The first charge, a felony, was an enhanced count due to the crime being “motivated by bias (or) hatred toward (the) victim,” logs show. He is a California resident. Bond was set at $2,000 on Tuesday, although it wasn’t clear if he’d posted it by the evening.

Police said a fight between two women broke out inside a party bus, which then stopped in a parking lot in the 300 block of Tropicana Avenue.

The fight continued outside, where Fields pulled out a gun and opened fire multiple times, striking one of the women at least once, police said. She was hospitalized at University Medical Center.

Information on the victim’s medical condition wasn’t released. Police did not disclose what, if any, relationship Fields had with either woman.

A little over an hour later, gunshots broke out outside the Stage Door Casino in the 4000 block of South Linq Lane, police said. 

A group of at least three men had gotten into a fight with a man, police said. The man took off, and Qiwon Whittiker, 23, Donald Zackery, 21, and Lee Owens, 28, chased him.

They found him, and one of the trio opened fire, missing his target but hitting three bystanders, who were then taken to UMC, where they were expected to survive, police said.

The suspects face multiple felony charges, including attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, court records show. The court approved for them to be released on bond.

Whittiker and Owens, who are California residents, posted $1,500 and $1,000 bail respectively, and they were ordered to stay out of trouble. It wasn’t clear what Zackery’s bail was, but he was apparently also out of jail as of Tuesday.

As some coronavirus restrictions were lifted this summer, and Strip properties reopened, Metro has dealt with an unusual spike in violent crime.

Lombardo theorizes that the upward trend is “a unique event, I believe, as a result of COVID-19,” but not just here.

He said that for tourists, there might be a level of frustration where they live and they have no outlet for entertainment, so they visit Las Vegas, which isn’t completely open due to pandemic restrictions. 

“I think there’s a certain level of frustration where they live and there’s no outlet, no entertainment outlet ... and they’re coming here and we’re not completely open,” Lombardo said Monday.

“You get a lot of people in a small group,” Lombardo said, “emotions are involved and tempers flare out of frustration or anxiety, so we’re dealing with what we’re dealing with.”

Lombardo cited hundreds of arrests and gun confiscations in an effort to let prospective visitors know that Las Vegas is a safe place to visit, he said.