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.