By KEN RITTER
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- 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, was convicted in Atlanta in 2005 of marijuana possession and
was arrested in Miami in December on reckless driving and failure to
produce a valid driver's license charges, according to public records.
"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."
Harris used the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris when
he was arrested last May in Las Vegas in a June 2010 case. He was
charged with robbery, sexual assault, kidnapping and coercion with a
weapon.
Las Vegas police also sought pandering by force and
ex-felon in possession of concealed weapon charges stemming from
allegations that Harris was a pimp and attacked a woman.
Court records show the case was dismissed last
June. The prosecutor and public defender who handled the case didn't
immediately respond to messages Monday.
In Miami Beach, Harris was arrested Dec. 7 after he
was accused of driving a silver 2006 Hummer H3 the wrong way on a
congested street at 2 a.m. The arresting officer said Harris produced a
Florida state identification card, provided a Miami address and said he
had been living in Florida for about a year. The status of the case in
Miami-Dade courts was unclear Monday.
In Las Vegas, investigators say Harris was driving a
black Range Rover SUV when he fired shots into a Maserati before dawn
Thursday, killing an aspiring rapper and causing a crash that killed two
people when a taxi exploded in a fireball at the heart of the Strip.
A SWAT team didn't find Harris at a Las Vegas
apartment where he was believed to have been living after the SUV was
found parked Saturday in the garage of a gated 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, 62, of Las Vegas, and passenger Sandra
Sutton-Wasmund, 48, 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 after last
year's arrest in Las Vegas in the prostitution case. It 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 last week's
search for the Range Rover from local and federal authorities in Nevada
and neighboring states of Arizona, California and Utah.
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© 2013 The Associated Press modified.
Anmar Harris
