Vegas shooting suspect arrested in Los Angeles

A self-described pimp was arrested Thursday in Los Angeles, ending a manhunt that began after a vehicle-to-vehicle shooting and spectacular, fiery crash that killed three people on the Las Vegas Strip a week ago, police said.

 

Ammar Harris, 26, surrendered to a team of police and federal agents who found him inside a North Hollywood apartment after a woman answered the door, authorities said.

 

Harris, whose Internet posts show him with fists full of money boasting of a high-rolling lifestyle with prostitutes, was the subject of the multi-state search after the Feb. 21 attack at a neon-lit intersection that's home to posh casino resorts such as Bellagio, Bally's, Flamingo and Caesars Palace.

 

Court documents allege Harris was driving his black Range Rover sports utility vehicle when he fired into a Maserati sports car, killing self-promoted rapper Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr. The two men had argued minutes earlier in the valet area of a Las Vegas Strip resort.

 

The Maserati, with Cherry mortally wounded at the wheel, sped forward and slammed into a taxi that burst into flames. The cabbie, 62-year-old Michael Boldon, and his passenger, 48-year-old Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, were killed.

 

The crash closed the Strip for about 15 hours while police investigated. Two days later, police located the SUV parked two blocks east of the crash scene at an apartment complex where Harris rented a unit. Harris wasn't there.

 

Lt. Ray Steiber, who headed the investigation, said Thursday that investigators learned that Harris fled Las Vegas "pretty rapidly" after the shooting and fiery crash. Detectives fielded "hundreds and hundreds" of tips in the following days.

 

Earlier Thursday, Las Vegas police revealed they had found and talked with all three women who were in the SUV with Harris during the shooting.

 

Police found SUV passenger Tineesha Lashun Howard in another, undisclosed state late Wednesday. Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Jones said police previously found and interviewed the two other women.

 

Jones wouldn't release the names of the other passengers but said none of the three women had been charged with a crime. Police were concerned about their safety, he said.

 

Howard, a 22-year-old from Miami with a history of prostitution arrests, also uses the names Yenesis Alfonzo or Yani. She was identified by police on Tuesday as a person of interest in the case who might have been in danger.

 

Steiber called the discovery that Howard left Los Angeles "one of the factors" that led investigators to find Harris in Studio City.

 

Las Vegas police also sought Thursday to stop the circulation of several photos the department issued Tuesday and Wednesday in the search for Harris. Police said they depict people unconnected with the case.

 

Harris was arrested last year in Las Vegas in a 2010 prostitution case using the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris. He was charged with robbery, sexual assault, kidnapping and coercion with a weapon, and police sought charges of pandering by force and felon in possession of concealed weapon. Court records show that case was dismissed last June.

 

Harris was convicted in South Carolina in 2004 of felony possession with intent to sell a stolen pistol and convicted that same year in Atlanta of a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.