Draft:2024 North Las Vegas shooting

2024 North Las Vegas shooting
Location	North Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Coordinates	36°14′57″N 115°8′45″W
Date	June 24, 2024 10:00 pm (UTC–08:00)
Target	Unknown
Attack type	Mass shooting, mass murder, domestic violence, hostage taking
Weapons	Firearm
Deaths	6 (including the suspect)
Injured	1
Perpetrator	Eric Adams
Motive	Unknown

At approximately 10:00 pm PDT, North Las Vegas Police Department officers were called to the Craig Ranch Villas apartment complex in response to an active shooting incident. Police discovered six shooting victims, five of whom ultimately died. The perpetrator, 48-year-old Eric Adams, fled the scene but was ultimately located later the same day. Upon being confronted by police, Adams fatally shot himself.

Shooting

Eric Adams was visiting his ex-girlfriend, Marshaya Harris, at her apartment in Craig Ranch Villas. Adams had been arrested previously for a November 2, 2023, incident in which he strangled her over an argument over money. During the visit, Adams and his ex-girlfriend got into another argument, prompting him to fatally shoot her daughter and the daughter's girlfriend.

A neighbor from upstairs heard the gunshots and went to the apartment to investigate and Adams fatally shot him. Adams then went upstairs and broke into another apartment where he fatally shot the man's grandmother and mother and critically wounded his teen sister. Two other teenagers were inside the apartment at the time, but Adams did not see them. After killing his ex-girlfriend's neighbors, Adams took her hostage and forced her into a vehicle before driving away.

Victims

Three of five of the victims who were killed were from the same family. Those three were 21-year-old Christopher Damian, who had gone downstairs after hearing gunfire, and his 59-year-old grandmother Damiana Muñoz and 40-year-old mother Amy Muñoz, who were both killed in the upstairs apartment. The two others killed in Harris' apartment were her daughter, 24-year-old Kayla Harris, and Kayla's girlfriend, 22-year-old Jeannette Faria-Webster. The surviving victim was the 13-year-old younger sister of Damian, who was critically wounded in the attack.

Perpetrator

The North Las Vegas Police Department identified the shooter as 48-year-old Eric Adams, the ex-boyfriend of the woman he took hostage, Marshaya Harris. Harris had previously filed a protection order against Adams in March which was scheduled to expire in July. A November 2023 case of domestic violence in which Adams had been arrested for strangling Harris resulted in him being forced to complete a domestic violence counseling service, do community service, and pay a fine. Adams had completed the domestic violence counseling earlier the same month before the attack and still owed $301 at the time of his death.

In February 2024, North Las Vegas Police issued a warrant for Adams' arrest on domestic violence charges, including domestic battery by strangulation, but the case was later dismissed before a preliminary hearing in April. In 2007, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police arrested Adams for robbing and beating a woman and he was sentenced to prison for 16–48 months by a judge. In total, Adams had been previously arrested 49 times. As a convicted felon, Adams was prohibited from owning a firearm, and it is not yet clear how he managed to get the firearm he used in the attack in his possession.

Manhunt and aftermath

After driving around aimlessly after the attack, Adams drove Harris to his mother's home the morning after the shooting and told her what he had done and that he was going to kill Harris next. According to Harris, his mother told him "no, you are not going to do that in front of me, where do I need to take you?" Adams' mother then got into the front passenger seat, and he drove her and Harris to another location. When they arrived, Adams got out of the vehicle and left, prompting Adams' mother to get into the driver's seat and drive back to her home before sitting down on her front porch. Harris recounted that she had then gotten into the driver's seat herself and drove until she spotted a police officer who she then flagged down.

Later that same morning, Adams was spotted at a business in Las Vegas in the 1500 block of West Lake Mead Boulevard in West Las Vegas. Police officers responding to the business spotted Adams running away from the business into the Whispering Timbers neighborhood of Las Vegas. Police officers followed Adams into the backyard of a home where, after refusing to drop the weapon, he fatally shot himself.

On June 26, 2024, over a hundred people attended a candlelight vigil outside of Craig Ranch Villas. Adams State University, the school at which Harris was a student at and played basketball for, also released a statement in which university President David Tandberg expressed his devastation over her death and encouraged students, staff, and coaches to contact the school's Counseling Center.

Some residents of Craig Ranch Villas expressed disbelief over the attack and said that Adams had been living in the apartment for months. April White, a resident of Craig Ranch Villas, told KLAS-TV that she had to do a background check in order to be allowed to move into the apartment and that "they're supposed to have no felons".