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Monday, Feb. 25, 2013 | 9:36 a.m.
Ammar Harris is sought in connection with the deaths of three people on the Strip on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013.
Metro Police released this picture of a Range Rover believed to have been used in a shooting and collision that killed three people.
A manhunt has widened to southeastern U.S. states for a 26-year-old ex-convict identified as the prime suspect in a shooting and fiery crash that killed three last week on the Las Vegas Strip, police said Monday.
Ammar Harris used to live in South Carolina and Georgia. He was convicted in Atlanta in 2005 of marijuana possession, and he was arrested in Miami in December on a reckless driving charge, according to public records.
Harris also was arrested in June 2010 in Las Vegas on pandering, kidnapping, sex assault and coercion charges stemming from allegations that he was a pimp. He sometimes goes by the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris.
Investigators believe Harris was the driver and the gunman who fired shots from a black Range Rover SUV into a Maserati, killing an aspiring rapper and causing a crash and explosion that killed two people when a taxi exploded in a fireball before dawn Thursday at the heart of the Strip.
"We have him identified," Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Jones said. "Now the focus is on locating and apprehending him. We're getting help all over the place."
A SWAT team didn't find Harris at his home after the SUV was found parked Saturday in the garage of a gated apartment complex a couple of blocks east of the Strip.
The SUV had been sought as the getaway vehicle in the shooting and six-vehicle, chain-reaction crash on Las Vegas Boulevard near the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally's and Flamingo resorts.
Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr. was mortally wounded when the dark gray Maserati he was driving was peppered by gunfire from the SUV. Taxi driver Michael Boldon and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund of Maple Valley, Wash., died in the taxi.
Police say the triple homicide 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.
A passenger in the Maserati was wounded in the arm, and four people from four other vehicles were treated for non-life-threatening injuries after the crash
Police released a photo of Harris taken following his arrest in Las Vegas in the 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. Jones said Harris should be considered armed and dangerous.
Las Vegas police sought help during the search for the Range Rover from local and federal authorities in Nevada and neighboring states of Arizona, California and Utah.
I like how the sun paints the shooter as an ex-con, but the 'aspiring rapper' as a good guy.....sorry not buying it.
Put out a reward for this guys whereabouts and he'll be caught in a few days.
Read the RJ, they paint a more appropriate picture of the rapper (actually pimp).
Ashley, I did a screenplay with a rapper in it so I listened to a lot of rap while I wrote the script. Only about 10% of it was the kind of stuff that gets all the attention - the maliciousness, violence, and swearing. Most of it was very "woe is me" kind of things or ego monuments. Sort of a less lyricized and tap your toes white country. Mainly beats and rhymes that were generally forgettable. Again, like white country.
He is hiding in plain sight. Probably mingling with investment bankers, stock brokers and rocket scientists. Look for him to be hanging out with them. Or in a book store.
Some unanswered questions
If the apartment complex where this guy lives is loaded with cameras, there has to be some record of him arriving and leaving. These surveillance loops usually last for at least a month.
Did anyone check and interview all his former....uh...girlfriends?
How about the baby mommies....I'm sure there are a few.
How did Kenny Cherry get that gold diamond Presidential Rolex on the videos? If it's real, and I'm sure it is, it's worth over 35K.
I see pictures of a wrecked white pick up truck with a bed top. Who was in there and what happened to them?
Based on surveillance pictures from the club of Harris, who was he with?
The filled heart tattoo on the left side is a crip gang mark, at least it used to be.
The Range Rover was recently purchased by the temp tags. Where was it purchased and under what financial arrangement. Want to bet it was cash?
John L. Smith presented lots of information from 'court records'... probably hand delivered by his 'contacts' on the police department. I'm just wondering why we don't hear about convictions or sentences to prison? Is this a 'systems' problem where arrests are not being made, cases are not being prosecuted successfully when arrests ARE made, and where judges are not locking up pimps?
Ocean Fleming was on the radar for the LV Sun not long ago. These convictions and prison sentences are way too rare...Detective Baughman told Jim Rogers that there are 'thousands' of pimps in Las Vegas.
He was also interviewed in the Las Vegas Weekly and responded to this question, Do you think trafficking and pimping are bigger issues in Las Vegas than anywhere else?
"Las Vegas is definitely the place to be. There is so much money in a small area. You can hide in plain sight here. Where else can a 22-year-old drive down the street in a Maserati and nobody pays attention? We've sort of opened the door for a lot of bad people to come here."
He certainly presaged this recent event...I'm wondering if he upset the sheriff with the 'negative tone' of his comments (We've sort of opened the door for a lot of bad people to come here.) It is truly amazing at what some 'special' people can get away with under Sheriff Gillespie...self promoting and profiting from their current jobs... Vice Detectives, captains and lieutenants too...
Why were 3 experienced VICE sergeants transferred out of the unit in one year? There is soooo much more of the story to be told.
Use your head he had everything to lose by losing his cool... he's dead... shot by the same guy who capped the rapper. My logic tells me 99% chance the driver was a victim as well. How many times as some lost friend showed up in Vegas and wanted to be shown the city... this driver is dead by the same guy who who shot the rapper. The shooter will be from the driver's home town. and also tell us where the driver is buried.
Bob-Realist, re: your Atlanta Journal link: as a life long resident of Georgia who frequently travels to Las Vegas, I would vote for Atlanta as having become a leading cesspool for aspiring rappers and pimps over Las Vegas any day. Just a walk thru the Atlanta airport permits you to determine that you are in a different world.
Police should keep a close eye around Main St. & Owens. He would mix right in with the rest of the walking dead.
yes i think the sun would be better serving its readers if they refereed to cherry as a pimp instead of rapper.puts things more into perspective.
A pimp and a banger and some of the moonbats here over the past week want to blame the NRA. You keep your whistles, i'll keep my gun.