Prime suspect sought in Las Vegas shooting, crash

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Police are seeking a 26-year-old man as the prime suspect in last week’s pre-dawn shooting and crash on the Las Vegas Strip that killed three people and injured several others

The black SUV used as a getaway car was found Saturday as police named Ammar Harris in connection with the shooting and six-vehicle chain-reaction carnage Thursday on the neon-lit boulevard near the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally’s and Flamingo resorts,

An aspiring rapper who was driving a Maserati was shot to death, while two people in a taxi died in the crash.

“His location is unknown,” police Capt. Chris Jones said of Mr. Harris, who sometimes goes by the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris. Police say he previously has been arrested for working as a pimp.

Police released a photo that was taken when Harris was arrested last year on pandering, kidnapping, sexual assault and coercion charges. The disposition of that case was not immediately known.

The photo shows Mr. Harris with tattoos on his right cheek and words on his neck above an image that appeared to depict an owl with blackened eyes. Capt. Jones warned that MR. Harris should be considered armed and dangerous.

Police had been searching for the black Range Rover, with blackout windows and distinctive black rims, since it was last seen speeding from the shooting. It was located at an apartment complex just a couple of blocks east of the Strip and was impounded as evidence, Capt. Jones said.

The shooting killed Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr., who was driving the dark gray Maserati that was peppered by gunfire from the SUV. Taxi driver Michael Boldon and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund of Maple Valley, Wash., died when the Maserati hit their taxi, which exploded in flames.

Mr. Boldon, 62, was a family man who moved from Michigan to Las Vegas. Mrs. Sutton-Wasmund, 48, was a businesswoman and mother of three.

A passenger in the Maserati was wounded in the arm, and four people from four other vehicles were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The Maserati passenger was cooperating with investigators. His name hasn’t been made public.

The shocking chain of events had family members and friends in Las Vegas, California, Michigan and Washington state trying to grasp the blink-of-an-eye finality of it all.

“My son was a good boy,” Kenneth Cherry Sr. told reporters Saturday in a news conference convened by Las Vegas lawyers Vicki Greco and Robert Beckett.

Mr. Beckett said they wanted to respond to rumors that the 27-year-old son — who produced a rap video using the name Kenny Clutch — was a gangster and a troublemaker. The attorneys had represented his son, and now represent his estate and the family.

“My son was a victim, just like the two people in that taxi,” the senior Mr. Cherry said. “Trouble found him. The people in the taxicab, trouble found them.”

Court records show the younger Mr. Cherry had no criminal cases or convictions in Las Vegas, and police said there was no record of arrests.

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