LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Las Vegas man accused of shooting and killing another man in the north valley told police he did it because the victim had killed his friend on the same street a day before, according to an arrest report.
Jason Spellman, 38, faces a charge of murder with a deadly weapon, records showed.
Just before 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 27, police responded to reports of a shooting near 1200 Hassel Avenue, which is near Martin Luther King and Lake Mead boulevards. There, officers found 43-year-old Clarence Harvey III shot on the sidewalk, the report said.
Harvey was taken to the hospital, where he died.
Police found Harvey had been walking westbound on Hassel when a person in a Buick SUV drove toward him and fired two rounds. Harvey started running down the street before being “possibly” struck by the car, the report said.
Harvey got up and kept running before collapsing to the ground. The driver of the SUV turned around, parked, and fired one more time at Harvey while he was lying on the ground, before driving away, according to the report.
When detectives found the SUV they believed to be involved in the shooting, its owner told police someone she knew, identified as Spellman, used her car earlier in the day for about 20 minutes, the report said.
The woman “became uncooperative” and ran from detectives before being detained, the report said.
Officers later found and arrested Spellman the next day. In an interview with detectives, Spellman said he was at a gathering on Nov. 27 for a friend who was killed the day before on Hassell and Concord Street, according to the report.
Spellman told detectives that Harvey showed up to the gathering and told Spellman that he had killed Spellman’s friend “due to some business opportunities,” the report said.
Police wrote in the report that this angered Spellman because he saw the friend who was killed as “practically a family member.”
Shortly after, Spellman followed Harvey from the gathering and “became more upset when Harvey looked at him with a disrespectful look as he drove by,” the report said.
Spellman told police that Harvey said something to the effect of “I’m already dead,” before Spellman allegedly fired the last round at him, according to the report.
Spellman was being held at the Clark County Detention Center as of Tuesday.