Tag Archives: Chris Jones

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Suspect in Strip shooting-crash returned to Vegas

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Police say the suspect in a Las Vegas Strip shooting and fiery crash that killed three people was moved overnight in tight custody from Los Angeles to Nevada to face criminal charges.

Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Jones tells The Associated Press that 27-year-old Ammar Harris was booked into the Clark County jail early Tuesday.

Jones says the move to Las Vegas was uneventful, but authorities think Harris may have been planning to try to escape.

Harris has been jailed in Los Angeles since his Feb. 28 arrest following an intense manhunt.

He’s accused of firing fatal shots early Feb. 21 at the driver of a Maserati sports car that then slammed into a taxi, killing the cab driver and a tourist from Washington state. Five other people were injured.

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/eor7ykszmu8/

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Police investigate Ohio crash that killed 6 teens

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Investigators spent Monday trying to piece together why eight teenagers were crammed into a speeding SUV without the owner’s permission when it flipped over into a pond, killing six of them.

Authorities gave no details on where the group of friends had been and why they were out around daybreak Sunday. But the father of one of the dead said they were coming home from a sleepover at a friend’s house.

No one in the group had asked to take the vehicle, and its owner was not related to any of the teens, said State Highway Patrol Lt. Brian Holt. It was registered to someone from Youngstown, about 20 miles away.

“That’s all we know right now,” Holt said.

State police said the SUV hit a guardrail on a two-lane road in an industrial section of town and landed upside down in about 5 feet of water, filling up in a matter of minutes, Holt said. Five boys and a young woman, ages 14 to 19, were killed.

Two boys smashed a rear window, wriggled out of the wreckage and swam away, then ran a quarter-mile to a home to call 911, authorities said. Brian Henry, 18, and Asher Lewis, 15, suffered only minor injuries.

Investigators said they believe excessive speed was a key factor in the crash, which took place in a 35 mph zone, but they did not say how fast the SUV was going. They were also awaiting the results of drug and alcohol tests.

All eight teenagers were from Warren, a mostly blue-collar city of 41,000 near the Pennsylvania line, about 60 miles east of Cleveland.

Andre Bennett Sr., whose son Andrique was among those killed, said Monday that his son and the others had all stayed over at a friend’s house and that a girl offered them a ride home.

Chris Jones, 16, said he used to see most of the victims every day at school and in their neighborhood. He knew all but two in the crash.

“They’re not always the best kids. They’re not out there looking for straight A’s,” he said. “But none of these kids should be where they are today. This should have never had happened.”

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

Articles of Interest

Ammar Harris Search: Warrant Issued For Suspect In Deadly Las Vegas Strip Shooting Suspect

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

LAS VEGAS — Police said Monday they have a warrant for a 26-year-old ex-convict identified as the prime suspect in a shooting and fiery crash that killed three people last week on the Las Vegas Strip.

“We can say with certainty that Ammar Harris is the suspect who fired the fatal shots,” Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Jones told reporters at an afternoon update about a manhunt that he said would be advertised on southern Nevada billboards.

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More on Las Vegas

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

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Las Vegas police identify suspect, issue arrest warrant in Strip shooting

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Police said Monday they have a warrant for a 26-year-old ex-convict identified as the prime suspect in a shooting and fiery crash that killed three people last week on the Las Vegas Strip.

“We can say with certainty that Ammar Harris is the suspect who fired the fatal shots,” Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Jones told reporters at an afternoon update about a manhunt that he said would be advertised on southern Nevada billboards.

Police previously released a photo of Harris taken after his arrest last year in Las Vegas in a 2010 prostitution case. It showed Harris with tattoos on his right cheek and words on his neck above an image that appeared to depict an owl with blackened eyes. Jones said Harris should be considered armed and dangerous.

Jones said investigators were looking everywhere Harris had lived in the past. He wasn’t specific.

Police also warned anyone aware of his location or who may be assisting Harris ‘in any way’ that he will be prosecuted.

“If Mr. Harris is listening, I urge him to surrender and make himself available to the criminal justice system where he will be afforded all the rights that anybody would be afforded,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, said, according to Fox5Vegas.com.

Public records show that Harris previously lived in South Carolina and Georgia, and told a police officer when he was arrested in Miami Beach last December that he had lived in Florida for about a year.

Harris was convicted in 2004 in Orangeburg, S.C., of felony possession with intent to sell a stolen pistol, Jones said. The conviction was not in California, as police said earlier.

Harris used the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris when he was arrested last May in Las Vegas in the June 2010 case. He was charged with robbery, sexual assault, kidnapping and coercion with a weapon.

Las Vegas police also sought pandering by force and ex-felon in possession of concealed weapon charges stemming from allegations that Harris was a pimp and attacked a woman.

Court records show the case was dismissed last June. The prosecutor and a public defender who handled the case didn’t immediately respond to messages Monday.

In Miami Beach, Harris was arrested Dec. 7 after he was accused of driving a silver 2006 Hummer H3 the wrong way on a congested street at 2 a.m. The arresting officer said Harris produced a Florida state identification card and provided a Miami address. The status of the case in Miami-Dade courts was unclear Monday.

In Atlanta, Harris was arrested in June 2004 on a felony marijuana possession with intent to distribute charge. According to court records, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge and was sentenced to three months in jail.

Fulton County jail records show Harris spent about two weeks in jail in February 2008 after a misdemeanor battery arrest. The outcome of that case was not immediately clear Monday.

In Las Vegas, investigators say Harris was driving a black Range Rover SUV when he fired shots into a Maserati before dawn Thursday, killing an aspiring …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

News, Politics, Government

In hunt for Las Vegas shooting suspect, police focus on home, work

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Investigators searching for a suspect in a Las Vegas shooting and vehicle crash that killed three people last week are focusing on places where the alleged gunman lived and worked.

Public records show that 26-year-old Ammar Harris lived in South Carolina and Georgia. He was convicted in Atlanta in 2005 of marijuana possession; he was arrested in Miami in December on a reckless driving charge and in Las Vegas last year on pandering, kidnapping, sex assault and coercion charges.

“We have him identified,” Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Jones told the Associated Press. “Now the focus is on locating and apprehending him. We’re getting help all over the place.”

Harris is accused of firing shots into a Maserati last Thursday, killing aspiring rapper Kenny Cherry, and causing a crash and explosion that killed two other people in a taxi at the heart of the Las Vegas Strip. The incidents happened on the boulevard near the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally’s and Flamingo resorts, police told the Associated Press.

On Saturday afternoon, police found a black Range Rover SUV – believed to be connected to the shooting — at an apartment complex east of the Las Vegas Strip. A SWAT team didn’t find Harris at his home in the complex, but the vehicle has been impounded as evidence.

Cherry, 27, was driving his Maserati when police say a shooter from the black Range Rover SUV peppered his car before it sped through a red light and smashed into a taxi, killing driver Michael Boldon, of Las Vegas, and his passenger, Sandra Sutton-Wasmund of Maple Valley, Wash..

Boldon, the taxi driver, was described as a family man who hailed from Michigan. Sutton-Wasmund came from a loving Washington state family and was well regarded in her community.

Police said the shooting stemmed from an altercation between Cherry and Harris in a valet area of the upscale Aria resort a block south of the crash scene at Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road.

“What the original disagreement was is crucial to the ongoing investigation and the identification of the suspects,” said Las Vegas Police Officer Bill Cassell.

Police said a passenger in Cherry’s Maserati was wounded in the arm, but was treated at a hospital and released. He was reported to be cooperating with investigators, and his name wasn’t made public.

Besides Cherry‘s passenger, police said five other people were treated for injuries after the six-vehicle crash. No one was said to face life-threatening injuries.

Authorities have also released a photo of Harris taken following his arrest in Las Vegas last year in a prostitution case. The disposition of the case wasn’t immediately known.

The photo showed Harris with tattoos on his right cheek and words on his neck above an image that appeared to depict an owl with blackened eyes. Las Vegas Police Capt. Chris Jones said Harris should be considered armed and dangerous.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

News, Politics, Government

Police find Range Rover, ID suspect in Vegas shooting

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Police have found a black Range Rover SUV in Las Vegas and identified a suspect in a shooting that sent a Maserati into a taxi that exploded, killing three people.

Police Capt. Chris Jones tells The Associated Press the vehicle was found Saturday afternoon at an apartment complex east of the Las Vegas Strip. It has been impounded as evidence.

Jones says police are looking for 26-year-old Ammar Harris in connection with the shooting early Thursday on the Strip. His arrest history in Las Vegas includes charges of kidnapping and pandering.

Maserati driver and aspiring rapper Kenny Cherry was killed by gunfire.

Taxi driver Michael Boldon, of Las Vegas, and his passenger, Sandra Sutton-Wasmund of Maple Valley, Wash., died when the Maserati crashed into them.

Cherry, 27, was driving in his Maserati on the Vegas Strip when police say a shooter from a black Range Rover SUV peppered his car before it sped through a red light and smashed into a taxi, killing Michael Boldon, the taxi driver, and his passenger in the backseat.

The rapper would film online music videos on the Strip and post them online. In one song he raps, “One mistake change lives all in one night.”

In this case, three lives were cut shot.

Boldon, the taxi driver, was described as a family man who hailed from Michigan. His passenger, Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, came from a loving Washington state family and was well regarded in her community.

As investigators Saturday tried to find the gunman in a black Range Rover SUV who triggered the shocking chain of events, families and friends tried to grasp the blink-of-an-eye finality of it all.

“Right now my heart is breaking,” said Cherry’s great aunt, Patricia Sims, of Oakland, Calif. “This has really been a tragedy. Kenny was just a delightful kid.”

Sims, 75, said Cherry moved to Las Vegas from Northern California, though she didn’t know her nephew was a rapper using the name Kenny Clutch.

Cherry’s parents were traveling to Las Vegas on Friday to claim his body.

The taxi exploded into flames, killing Boldon and Sutton-Wasmund, as four other vehicles crashed like pinballs at an intersection overlooked by some of Las Vegas‘ most famous hotel-casinos: Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally’s and the Flamingo.

Police think an argument at the valet area of the upscale Aria resort-casino led to the shooting, but they haven’t shared details. The shooting happened the same night that Morocco-born rapper French Montana was playing at Aria’s signature nightclub, Haze.

“What the original disagreement was is crucial to the ongoing investigation and the identification of the suspects,” said Las Vegas police officer Bill Cassell.

Police said a passenger in the Maserati was wounded in the arm but was treated at a hospital and released. He was reported to be cooperating with investigators, and his name wasn’t made public.

Cherry’s father, Kenneth Cherry Sr., of Emeryville, Calif., said he was struggling to handle his grief.

He said his son started a music career in Oakland after attending two Catholic high schools. According to his father, Cherry was recognized by other rappers within a West Coast …read more
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