LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrest report has provided a wealth of new information pertaining to a March double murder outside a convenience store.
On March 5 at approximately 3:25 a.m., LVMPD dispatch received multiple reports of a shooting on the 5000 block of East Tropicana Avenue. Officers arrived and located three victims, two adult females and an adult male, suffering from apparent gunshot wounds.
Medical personnel responded and pronounced one female victim dead at the scene. The other two victims were taken to Sunrise Hospital where the other woman was later pronounced dead and the man received medical treatment for non-life-threatening wounds.
According to a Metro report, the suspect, later identified as Jason Manuel, fled eastbound on a bike toward eastbound Tropicana Ave. Homicide detectives secured the scene and collected evidence including four spent bullet cartridge cases, multiple bullet fragments, a folding knife, a lighter, multiple impact points and purported narcotics.
The male victim identified Manuel to police, and added that a “feud” between the two began when the suspect’s wife asked the victim for “help pushing meth” on Manuel’s behalf. He added that the suspect confronted him four days earlier at a bus stop adjacent to the eventual scene of the shooting.
On March 5, the victim said he was walking out the front door of the business when Manuel came around the corner on a bike and shot at him. He was struck in the left wrist and ran back into the store.
The victim said he realized his wife was still outside and he “ran back out to grab her,” according to police. He was that their friend was dead and he brought his wife inside the store.
Police interviewed a clerk at the store who said she was “familiar with the feud” between the two men. She said that in recent days, Manuel had been “acting weird” and said his erratic behavior included wearing a mask or bandana when entering the store.
Another employee of the store also told police that he knew that the victim had “an issue” with the man who shot him. He also knew the suspect’s name and said that Manuel had been to prison.
The second witness described hearing three to four gunshots from outside the store and said he looked up to see one woman falling to the ground while the other two entered the business. He called 911 to report the shooting.
Additional witnesses saw a man matching Manuel’s description leaving the scene on a bike following the shooting, and surveillance video from a nearby business also captured the suspect shooting and then fleeing on his bike.
Detectives identified 43-year-old Jason Robert Manuel as the suspect in this case. On April 1, law enforcement in California took Manuel into custody. He was booked into the Riverside County Jail and later extradited to Las Vegas.
Manuel appeared in Clark County Justice Court on April 16 and he faces two counts of open murder with a deadly weapon and one charge of attempted murder. His next court appearance is scheduled for May 1.
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