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Suspect Apprehended In School Bus Stop Shooting

The police have apprehended a suspect in the school bus stop shooting on Wednesday. The shooting occurred on Tuesday sometime in the afternoon when school was out. There were six people who were shot ranging in the age of 14 to 20.

Late on Tuesday night the Las Vegas police received a tip on who may have been involved in the shooting and that they were on a Greyhound bus heading to Chicago. The suspect was apprehended in Denver, Colorado when the Greyhound bus stopped at the bus station. The U.S. Marshals and the Denver police are the ones that apprehended the suspect around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. The suspect was identified as Nicco Tatum, who is 18 years old. Tatum is facing six counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon and six counts of battery with a deadly weapon.

On Wednesday morning the police narrowed their search of suspects and they also raised the level of security after the worst school-related violence that has happened in this area. There was a second shooter involved and that suspect is still at large. That suspect is a priority for the Las Vegas police.

Four of the injured victims were Mojave High School students. They were treated and released from University Medical Center. Two of the injured victims had to stay in the hospital. Mark Smith, who is 17 year old, was listed at stable condition after being shot in the stomach. The other victim, who is Alex Rios and is 18 years old, was listed in serious condition as of Wednesday.

The police have heard many theories on why the shooting occurred. Some say it was gang related, some say it was because of a girlfriend, and others say it was racial. The police are looking into every scenario so that they find the real reason that the shooting occurred.

Many of the students have said that they don’t feel very safe going to Mojave High School. Apparently there is quite a bit of violence that happens at the school. One student even talked about how he has been asked a few times if he wants to buy drugs within the school. The superintendent has said that they have asked for more security but they have not been complied with their requests. Another superintendent, of a different school, has said that they asked to have metal detectors put into the school but the request got buried in bureaucracy and then later got rejected by district officials because they thought that was too much.

Something needs to be done about the fear that students are feeling and the violence that is occurring. Kids need to feel safe when they go to school. So, something needs to happen to make schools more safe.

Kevin Dubrow’s Cause Of Death Revealed

Kevin Dubrow, who was the lead singer of the band Quiet Riot, died on November 25 but at the time no one knew what he had died from. The autopsy has come back to say that Dubrow died from a drug overdose. This is a likely story when it comes to rock stars but it doesn’t make it any less sad.

Clark County coroner’s office said that he died from cocaine intoxication but that it was by accident. The overdose comes as a shock for many of Dubrow’s friends because even though he had gotten a reputation for living the rock star life, with partying all the time and doing drugs, when he moved to Las Vegas in 1995 he seemed to calm down. He lived a much healthier lifestyle by working out daily and eating healthy food. He seemed to have stopped doing drugs and drinking. So, many of his friends thought he was clean and sober.

Dubrow, who was 52 when he died, was found dead at his home on November 25. Police were called to 4800 Mountain Valley Road by a neighbor of Dubrow’s because they wanted them to check on him to make sure he was fine. Obviously when they arrived at his home everything was not fine. It didn’t look like there was any forced entry into the home and nothing looked suspicious.

Dubrow started the band back in 1975 with guitarist Randy Rhoads. Rhoads didn’t stay with the band; he ended up joining Ozzy Osbourne’s band. After Rhoads left is when Quiet Riot started to hit it big because of Dubrow’s stage presence and his scratchy voice. Their third album came out in 1983 and it was titled “Metal Health”. This was their best selling album and put them in the books of metal by selling 5 million copies because of their single “Cum on Feel the Noize”. This album also was the first metal album to hit number 1 on the Billboard chart.

According to Lonn Friend, who was a rock journalist and an author, “Without Quiet Riot, there would have never been a Motley Crue or a Poison or Ratt. They were the first.”

Dubrow got kicked out of Quiet Riot in the late 1980’s and then he tried to put a new band together in the early 1990’s that was like the Quiet Riot. They had just recently played at the Henderson Pavilion.

Dubrow was a big influence on the metal world. He did have some demons in his life that he was working through but he was trying to live a sober and healthy life. It just seems like his demons got the best of him. He will be greatly missed by many people.

Land Seizure Is Still Being Debated After 12 Years Of Legal Battle

Paul Moldon, a former Las Vegas Resident, believes he may finally get the proper compensation for the seizure of his lot which was next to the Stratosphere after a 12 year court battle.

After a half hour Supreme Court hearing on Monday, Moldon had said that he thinks that the judges finally got it. He went on to say that the city stole his property so that they could give it to the Stratosphere and then the county stole his interest.

In 1995, the city of Las Vegas’s redevelopment agency used the power of eminent domain to take Moldon’s half-acre lot in aid of the Stratosphere. At that time the casino-hotel wanted that land for expansion.

At that time, the city deposited $725,000 in a Clark County District Court trust account for Moldon. After that Moldon challenged the seizure and the money just sat in the account.

The interest that the account earned, which was estimated at $150,000 to $200,000 for over 10 years, was moved by the court clerk to the Clark County government’s general fund.

The Supreme Court is not expected to make a ruling for several months on whether the interest that was earned on the money belongs to Moldon. There are some justices, like Senior Justice Deborah Agosti, that have made comments that support Moldon’s position.

Agosti has questioned how the county could draw off the interest since Moldon was disputing the taking and did not surrender the property at the time.

Moldon, who is now a Washington state resident, suffers from multiple sclerosis that he says has been made worse by the long legal battle. When he was in the Supreme Court building he had to hobble around.

In late 2004, a Clark County jury found the land should have been priced at $1.5 million. Then Moldon sold the property to Stratosphere.

By Monday, Moldon had said that he had received about $3 million in principle and interest payments from the Stratosphere. He also said though that he had not received any of the interest that was earned on the original $725,000 deposit.

Three Deadly Crashes All On Sunday Morning

There were three deadly car accidents that happened on Sunday morning on the Southern part of Las Vegas. The authorities are suspecting alcohol or drugs could have been a factor in all three crashes.

The first crash happened at 3:30 a.m. on Interstate 15. Kevin Honea, who is a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper, said that the accident occurred three miles south of Sloan.

A man was driving a Nissan pickup north when he drifted into another lane then struck the back of a GMC Sonoma pickup and then the Nissan hit the center median wall.

The man who was driving the Nissan was not wearing a seatbelt so he was thrown from his vehicle and he was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. There were two people in the GMC Sonoma but they were not injured.

The second fatal crash was at about 7:30 a.m. only four hours later than the first accident and it was just south of the first crash.

The authorities had closed two out of three northbound lanes down on Interstate 15 because of the first accident that had happened earlier that morning but a man driving a Ford SVT Focus approached the slowed traffic at a speed that was too fast.

The man that was driving the Ford tried to drive around a Honda sedan but instead hit an outside median. Then the driver of the Ford hit the Honda on its passenger side and then the Honda got pushed into a parked Nevada Department of Transportation truck.

The man who was driving the Honda, who was also 80 years old, was pronounced dead and his female passenger was airlifted to University Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. Also, the driver of the Nevada Department of Transportation truck was taken to University Medical Center with minor injuries.

The driver of the Ford decided to drive away from the crash, he was heading southbound in the northbound lanes said Honea. Troopers finally stopped him about five miles away from the crash and booked him into the county jail.

Then about two hours later at roughly 9:30 a.m. a man in his 20s driving a Chevrolet Trailblazer lost control of his vehicle on U.S. Highway 95 at Ann Road.

The Trailblazer hit the guardrail and then started to roll down the embankment between Ann and U.S. Highway 95. Once again the driver of the Trailblazer was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from his vehicle. The man was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

Prudential Americana Group Is Filing For Bankruptcy

One of the largest residential real estate firms in the Las Vegas valley, Prudential Americana Group, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The reason they give for doing this is so that they can reorganize their debts while continuing operations.

They company, which didn’t file the paperwork as of Tuesday, has 1,200 sales executives operating and has positive cash flow. However, the owner Mark Stark has said the Prudential Americana Group, which is the seventh largest real estate firm nationally in the Prudential network, needs to have the bankruptcy court protection so that they can restructure their debt.

Stark has also said that they are focused on business as usual. He said that the bankruptcy filing is only for debt restructuring and that they continue to grow market share.

The good thing is that the bankruptcy filing will not affect the 3,000 exclusive listings that Prudential Americana has in Southern Nevada. Stark has projected that the company is possibly the biggest residential real estate company in the area. They have 15 percent share of all the local home resales. Brokers who work under the Prudential Americana name also sell new homes and commercial real estate.

Prudential Americana Group is the second big real estate firm that has filed for bankruptcy protection in recent months. In August, Jimmy Dague, who is the president of Vision Properties who is doing business as Century 21 Advantage Gold, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

When Vision filed for bankruptcy they had reported $1 million in assets and $1.8 million in liabilities. The company has said that it had $54.6 million in gross income for 2005. Vision also reported its gross income fell to $40.3 million the following year and then to $15.8 million in the first eight months in 2007. The brokerage’s web site had reported that they had 500 agents.

Prudential Americana’s problems started in October 2004. Stark had borrowed the money to buy the company when residential real estate was exploding and home prices were rising quickly.

Stark had bought 75 percent of the company that he didn’t own from his partners and Prudential Real Estate, which is the national franchisor. To pay for the buyout, Stark borrowed $22.5 million from the Salt Lake City-based Zions Bank, which is an affiliate of Nevada State Bank, and the Peninsula Capital Partners from Detroit.

Zions, which is still owed $4.9 million out of the $10 million that was borrowed in 2004, is in the first position among the company’s lenders. Peninsula is actually an unsecured lender and was only receiving interest payments, pending a later balloon payment.

When Stark bought the company, he had anticipated a slump in the local real estate loan market would follow the explosion that sent home prices rising, but he had not anticipated the magnitude of the drop.
When the real estate market, Zions pulled the trigger on a loan agreement provision and they also ordered Prudential Americana to stop making payments to Peninsula. After that Peninsula executives pumped up the interest rate on their loan to 19 percent from an average 15 percent.

Prudential Real Estate said that they would take assume the Las Vegas real estate company’s debt but Peninsula would not accept the company’s terms. Prudential Real Estate plans on providing financing to Prudential Americana during their bankruptcy.

Kevin Dubrow Found Dead In His Las Vegas Home

Early Sunday morning, Quiet Riot singer Kevin Dubrow, who was 52 years old, died at his Las Vegas home. This silenced one of metal’s most distinctive voices that they had.

The cause of death has not been determined yet. An autopsy is being done along with toxicology results which could take up to six to twelve weeks to determine the cause of death, which is what is being reported by Clark County coroner’s spokesperson Samantha Charles.

Police arrived at 4800 Mountain Valley Road, which is where Dubrow was found dead, in response to a phone call that was made to go and check on Dubrow’s well-being, which is being reported by Las Vegas police. Dubrow was pronounced dead at 5:20 p.m.

Tony Bonnici, who is the general manager for Las Vegas rock radio station KOMP-FM where Dubrow worked as a morning drive-time host for about a year starting in 1996, has said that the rock world has lost a real character when it comes to Dubrow. Bonnici went on to say that Dubrow lived the rock ‘n’ roll world to the max.

Craig Williams, who is a KOMP DJ, who also lived with Dubrow for some time and was the co-host of his morning show, had said that Dubrow was a real wild man and was a lot of fun to be around. He went on to say that Dubrow enjoyed partying, eating good food, and staying up late. Dubrow had a strong personality.

Dubrow’s huge presence, razor-sharp tongue and hoarse yet tuneful howl is what helped Quiet Riot become one of the biggest metal bands in the world with their third disc, 1983 “Metal Health”. That album sold more than 5 million copies in the United States and gave the band a few hit singles on the charts.

Dubrow was the group’s snarling front man, a madman who always wore multi-colored suspenders and who founded the group in 1975 with guitar player Randy Rhoads but this was before he was lost to Ozzy Osbourne’s band. Rhoads later died in a plane crash in 1982.

After commercial success struck, Dubrow quickly received a reputation for his partying ways.

In 1995, though, he moved to Las Vegas. Dubrow then got clean and starting to try to reform his reputation as an arrogant rock star that was prone to verbally assaulting his head banging peers.

It was said that Dubrow was sober for years. He had become a health fanatic who ran every day and ate healthy.

Though Quiet Riot never matched their success with “Metal Health” and Dubrow was kicked out of the band in the late 1980s but later rejoined and the band remained a fixture on the road. Dubrow will be missed by many people.

O.J. Simpson’s Preliminary Hearing Starts Today

O.J. Simpson is back in Las Vegas after almost two months after he allegedly did an armed robbery at Palace Station. It is being said that this is the largest preliminary hearing in Clark County. Simpson arrived at the Regional Justice Center sometime just before 9:30 a.m. in a black hummer. His hearing was scheduled to start at 10 a.m. He was encircled by lawyers and police when he was going to the courthouse. He was also greeted by many reporters and curious onlookers.

Bruce Fromong, who was one of the two memorabilia dealers that Simpson is being accused of robbing, was scheduled to be the first witness that was going on stand today. Fromong testified that he was in the Palace Station hotel room because he was suppose to meet an anonymous buyer when Simpson and others came busting into the room yelling and accusing Fromong of stealing the items that he was going to sell.

Las Vegas has been planning for the hearing for weeks. National newspapers, television and radio stations have come from all over the country to cover this hearing and now they are all at the Las Vegas Regional Justice Center. Court officials have met with members of the media on Wednesday to tell them the courthouse procedures.

This preliminary hearing is to determine if there is enough evidence to bring Simpson to trial for the robbery at the hotel room in September 2007 at Palace Station. Simpson will get his chance before the judge on numerous charges that are against him, which include first degree kidnapping, robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

The state is expected to have eight witnesses testify at the preliminary hearing, which will include the three men who have already accepted plea bargains in exchange for their testimony against Simpson.

Simpson and two co-defendants are all facing twelve criminal charges, which are all felonies except for one. The charges they are facing are: conspiracy to commit a crime, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, conspiracy to commit robbery, burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon, two counts of first degree kidnapping with use of a deadly weapon, two counts of robbery with use of a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and two counts of coercion with the use of a deadly weapon.

A whole witness list for Thursday has not been released but it is expected that Metro investigators and several of Simpson’s former co-defendants will be testifying in court today.

Metro police will be closing Lewis and Clark Avenues between Third Street and Casino Center for the hearing. These streets will not be available to park on either. Parking could be very difficult because the metered parking lot that is next to the courthouse is also closed.

Court officials are saying that if you have business at the courthouse Thursday or Friday you are suppose to use the north entrance that is off of Lewis Avenue while the hearing is going on.

Darren Mack Pleads Guilty

Darren Mack, who was on trial for killing his wife and attempting to kill the judge that was handling their divorce case, plead guilty to first-degree murder and entered a so-called “Alford plea” today. An Alford plea is when a defendant acknowledges that there was enough evidence to convict them but they don’t admit guilt.

The defense was about to call witnesses in the trial when testimony was to begin on October 24th for the former wealthy owner of a Reno pawn shop, who is Mack.

As part of the deal for his plea agreement, he will serve life with parole on the murder charge of his estranged wife. The sentencing was scheduled for the morning of January 17 and18. Mack’s attorneys have agreed to this deal with the condition that if the judge doesn’t give Mack the agreed upon sentence, they have the opportunity to take back the plea and make the case go back to trial. Judge Herndon has said that he will go along with the agreed upon sentence that is part of the deal.

The announcement of the deal came after an hour of discussion with Mack’s family, who spent the morning huddled in the courtroom.

There is a possibility that Mack will be sentenced between two to 20 years for the attempted murder charge. This is an enhanced charge because there was a deadly weapon that was involved when the crime was committed. The enhancement means that the judge can decided to double the sentence on that charge.

Mack was on trial for the death of his estranged wife, Charla, at Mack’s townhouse in south Reno, he stabbed her to death, and for the attempted murder of the Washoe Family Court Judge Chuck Weller, who was their divorce judge. Mack shot the judge sniper style through the third-floor windows in the judge’s chambers. The judge did survive. On June 12, 2006 this all happened.

Mack has admitted to shooting Weller to the judge of his case, Judge Douglas Herndon. The reason he invoked the complicated plea was because of his intent. Mack had also at one point pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the attempted murder charge.

3 Police Officers Shot Near Paradise and Twain

A man running from the police shot and hit three officers Friday. Witnesses claim that the man was upset over a domestic dispute that occurred shortly before and went on a rampage.

He created a standoff situation by throwing mattresses up against the windows of a second story apartment, which was surrounded by nearly 100 police officers, including Las Vegas SWAT.

After several hours, the man gave up and was arrested, likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

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