Prime suspect named in Las Vegas shooting, crash
LAS VEGAS (AP) - A 26-year-old man was being sought Sunday as the prime suspect in a pre-dawn shooting on the Las Vegas Strip last week which led to a fiery crash that left three people dead and several others injured.
Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Jones said Sunday that investigators are working around the clock to sort through evidence and find Ammar Harris following the discovery Saturday of a black SUV used as a getaway car in the shooting and six-vehicle chain-reaction carnage on the neon-lit boulevard near the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally's and Flamingo resorts.
Jones cited "lots of information coming at us all at once, especially on the Range Rover." He wasn't specific.
An aspiring rapper driving a Maserati was shot to death Thursday, and two people in a taxi died in a crash and fireball when the Maserati hit their vehicle. The taxi passenger who died was a woman from Maple Valley, Wash.
Harris, who police said was arrested last year on allegations that he was a pimp, was named Saturday as the prime suspect in the triple homicide. Jones said police didn't know where he was.
Police released a jail photo of Harris taken following his arrest in Las Vegas last year on pandering, kidnapping, sexual assault and coercion charges. The disposition of that case was not immediately known.
Harris sometimes goes by the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris, police said. The photo shows him with tattoos on his right cheek and words on his neck above an image that appeared to depict an owl with blackened eyes. Jones warned that Harris should be considered armed and dangerous.
Police had been searching for the black Range Rover, with blackout windows and distinctive black rims, since it was last seen speeding away from the shooting. It was located at a gated apartment complex a couple of blocks east of the Strip, and was impounded as evidence.
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 and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, of Maple Valley, Wash., died in the taxi.
Boldon, 62, was a family man who moved from Michigan to Las Vegas. Sutton-Wasmund, 48, was a businesswoman and mother of three.
A passenger in the Maserati was wounded in the arm and four people from four other vehicles were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The Maserati passenger has not been identified, and police said he was cooperating with investigators.
The blink-of-an-eye chain of events had family members and friends in Las Vegas, California, Michigan and Washington mourning the dead this weekend.
"My son was a good boy," Kenneth Cherry Sr. told reporters in a Saturday news conference convened by Las Vegas lawyers Vicki Greco and Robert Beckett.
Beckett said they wanted to respond to rumors that the 27-year-old son - who produced a rap video using the name Kenny Clutch - was a gangster and a troublemaker. The attorneys had represented his son, an unmarried father of three, and now represent his estate and family.
"My son was a victim just like the two people in that taxi," Cherry Sr. said. "Trouble found him. The people in the taxicab, trouble found them."
Court records show Cherry had no criminal cases or convictions in Las Vegas, and police said there was no record of arrests
The Clark County coroner determined that Kenny Cherry died Thursday of at least one gunshot to the chest. The deaths of Cherry, Boldon and Sutton-Wasmund were ruled homicides.
Police say the shooting appeared to stem from an argument at the valet area of the upscale Aria resort-casino about a block south of the crash scene. The shooting happened after a night featuring Morocco-born rapper French Montana at Aria nightclub Haze.
Cherry's parents live in Emeryville, Calif., and the father said his son's body would be taken back to Oakland. He said his son started a music career there and was recognized by other rappers within a West Coast hip-hop strain called hyphy.
But Chuck Creekmur, chief executive of AllHipHop.com, said Cherry wasn't well-known in wider music circles.
Kenny Clutch's YouTube music video, "Stay Schemin," shows scenes of Las Vegas Strip hotels as he sings about paying $120,000 for his Maserati.
"One mistake change lives all in one night," he raps in one verse.
Kenneth Cherry Sr., who said he runs a cellphone business, said he helped his son make payments on the Maserati. He said he last spoke with his son on Wednesday, when they talked about the high cost of the son's cellphone use.
Cherry Sr. described his son as an entrepreneur but didn't say how he made money or if he had jobs other than his music production.
Boldon's family in Las Vegas was struggling to cope with his death, said Tehran Boldon, the taxi driver's younger brother.
Boldon's sister, Carolyn Jean Trimble, said Boldon was a father, a grandfather and a car race enthusiast who drove a Mercedes when he wasn't in a cab. He owned a clothing store in Detroit and worked at a car dealership, his sister said, and drove taxis after moving to Las Vegas about 1½ years ago.
The irony that a man with a taste for beautiful cars was killed by a sports car wasn't lost on Trimble.
"He would be tickled to death: 'Damn, of all things, a Maserati hit me, took me out like that,'" she said. "I'm happy he didn't suffer."
In Washington, Sutton-Wasmund co-owned a dress shop, said Debbie Tvedt, the office manager for a Maple Valley plumbing company that Sutton-Wasmund started with her husband, James Wasmund. Sutton-Wasmund was in Las Vegas attending a trade show with her business partner.
"It's a big loss," Tvedt said in a telephone interview with AP.
The Maple Valley-Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce website said Sutton-Wasmund was a board member from 2004 to 2011 before becoming a marketing representative.
A phone message left for James Wasmund was not immediately returned.
The famously glowing, always-open Las Vegas Strip was closed for some 15 hours after the crash. Nevada Highway Patrol Sgt. Eric Kemmer recalled a similarly long closure after the 1996 drive-by slaying of rapper Tupac Shakur.
That shooting - involving assailants opening fire on Shakur's luxury sedan from a vehicle on Flamingo Road - happened about a block away from Thursday's crash.
The Shakur killing has never been solved.
___
Associated Press writers Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas, Garance Burke in San Francisco, Kathy McCarthy in Seattle and AP Music Writer Mesfin Fekadu in New York contributed to this report.
Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Jones said Sunday that investigators are working around the clock to sort through evidence and find Ammar Harris following the discovery Saturday of a black SUV used as a getaway car in the shooting and six-vehicle chain-reaction carnage on the neon-lit boulevard near the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally's and Flamingo resorts.
Jones cited "lots of information coming at us all at once, especially on the Range Rover." He wasn't specific.
An aspiring rapper driving a Maserati was shot to death Thursday, and two people in a taxi died in a crash and fireball when the Maserati hit their vehicle. The taxi passenger who died was a woman from Maple Valley, Wash.
Harris, who police said was arrested last year on allegations that he was a pimp, was named Saturday as the prime suspect in the triple homicide. Jones said police didn't know where he was.
Police released a jail photo of Harris taken following his arrest in Las Vegas last year on pandering, kidnapping, sexual assault and coercion charges. The disposition of that case was not immediately known.
Harris sometimes goes by the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris, police said. The photo shows him with tattoos on his right cheek and words on his neck above an image that appeared to depict an owl with blackened eyes. Jones warned that Harris should be considered armed and dangerous.
Police had been searching for the black Range Rover, with blackout windows and distinctive black rims, since it was last seen speeding away from the shooting. It was located at a gated apartment complex a couple of blocks east of the Strip, and was impounded as evidence.
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 and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, of Maple Valley, Wash., died in the taxi.
Boldon, 62, was a family man who moved from Michigan to Las Vegas. Sutton-Wasmund, 48, was a businesswoman and mother of three.
A passenger in the Maserati was wounded in the arm and four people from four other vehicles were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The Maserati passenger has not been identified, and police said he was cooperating with investigators.
The blink-of-an-eye chain of events had family members and friends in Las Vegas, California, Michigan and Washington mourning the dead this weekend.
"My son was a good boy," Kenneth Cherry Sr. told reporters in a Saturday news conference convened by Las Vegas lawyers Vicki Greco and Robert Beckett.
Beckett said they wanted to respond to rumors that the 27-year-old son - who produced a rap video using the name Kenny Clutch - was a gangster and a troublemaker. The attorneys had represented his son, an unmarried father of three, and now represent his estate and family.
"My son was a victim just like the two people in that taxi," Cherry Sr. said. "Trouble found him. The people in the taxicab, trouble found them."
Court records show Cherry had no criminal cases or convictions in Las Vegas, and police said there was no record of arrests
The Clark County coroner determined that Kenny Cherry died Thursday of at least one gunshot to the chest. The deaths of Cherry, Boldon and Sutton-Wasmund were ruled homicides.
Police say the shooting appeared to stem from an argument at the valet area of the upscale Aria resort-casino about a block south of the crash scene. The shooting happened after a night featuring Morocco-born rapper French Montana at Aria nightclub Haze.
Cherry's parents live in Emeryville, Calif., and the father said his son's body would be taken back to Oakland. He said his son started a music career there and was recognized by other rappers within a West Coast hip-hop strain called hyphy.
But Chuck Creekmur, chief executive of AllHipHop.com, said Cherry wasn't well-known in wider music circles.
Kenny Clutch's YouTube music video, "Stay Schemin," shows scenes of Las Vegas Strip hotels as he sings about paying $120,000 for his Maserati.
"One mistake change lives all in one night," he raps in one verse.
Kenneth Cherry Sr., who said he runs a cellphone business, said he helped his son make payments on the Maserati. He said he last spoke with his son on Wednesday, when they talked about the high cost of the son's cellphone use.
Cherry Sr. described his son as an entrepreneur but didn't say how he made money or if he had jobs other than his music production.
Boldon's family in Las Vegas was struggling to cope with his death, said Tehran Boldon, the taxi driver's younger brother.
Boldon's sister, Carolyn Jean Trimble, said Boldon was a father, a grandfather and a car race enthusiast who drove a Mercedes when he wasn't in a cab. He owned a clothing store in Detroit and worked at a car dealership, his sister said, and drove taxis after moving to Las Vegas about 1½ years ago.
The irony that a man with a taste for beautiful cars was killed by a sports car wasn't lost on Trimble.
"He would be tickled to death: 'Damn, of all things, a Maserati hit me, took me out like that,'" she said. "I'm happy he didn't suffer."
In Washington, Sutton-Wasmund co-owned a dress shop, said Debbie Tvedt, the office manager for a Maple Valley plumbing company that Sutton-Wasmund started with her husband, James Wasmund. Sutton-Wasmund was in Las Vegas attending a trade show with her business partner.
"It's a big loss," Tvedt said in a telephone interview with AP.
The Maple Valley-Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce website said Sutton-Wasmund was a board member from 2004 to 2011 before becoming a marketing representative.
A phone message left for James Wasmund was not immediately returned.
The famously glowing, always-open Las Vegas Strip was closed for some 15 hours after the crash. Nevada Highway Patrol Sgt. Eric Kemmer recalled a similarly long closure after the 1996 drive-by slaying of rapper Tupac Shakur.
That shooting - involving assailants opening fire on Shakur's luxury sedan from a vehicle on Flamingo Road - happened about a block away from Thursday's crash.
The Shakur killing has never been solved.
___
Associated Press writers Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas, Garance Burke in San Francisco, Kathy McCarthy in Seattle and AP Music Writer Mesfin Fekadu in New York contributed to this report.
Good lord I just watched his video on u-tube. What a ....how in the hell does that crap he's spewing even get taken seriously....By ANYONE., Not saying it was worth his death, but he obviously was not a productive citizen....WOW!
Braggin bout Dis an Dat, man, you talkin smack!Â
Hey! i think I got it homes....Im gonna go be Wrapper LMAO
Every parent says the same about their own, but the fact of the matter is is that most parents have NO IDEA what or where their children are up too! They have no clue as to what they are really doing because or who they are keeping as friends and the parents NEVER get involved in their lives!! From the time they are young and in their early teens they go un noticed by their parents with minimal conversations. Everything is surface between them.
Parents are really in the dark 99% of the time!
Mr. Cherry sr. does seem to love his son. Jr. may or may not have been a thug. But the life style he lead sure seems not to be wise. The old walks like duck saying does apply here.
Mr. Harris will be caught soon. RIP to the taxi driver and passenger.
Talk about sad collateral damage.
Don't make any derogatory remarks about his parentage or you will be censored but it's totally permissible to show video of him groping himself every two seconds. OK, got it.
1. Never would have guessed that's what the dirtbag would look like.
2. Helping your ghetto rapper wannabe kid make payments on a luxury car he clearly could never afford while simultaneously scolding him about his excessive cell phone bill? EPIC parenting fail.
Put  to  death.
I don't care what the liberals say about profiling. It works. This guy looks like nothing but pure trouble. He should have already been locked up even if it was only because he looks like a criminal. Ok, well not really but none the less he looks like a problem just ready to happen.
I'm liberal, and I agree with you. Actually, I dont even consider myself liberal anymore, because of how sissy-sensitive this country has become. I guess after reading one of Adam Carolla's books, changed my outlook.
One sung about being a gangbanger and the other one tries to act like one and the end result is two people killed because of two idiots. I hope this guy gets the juice if convicted. Too bad this didn't happen in Texas. They know how to deal with killers.Â
It's a shame that these two pieces of trash couldn't just kill each other without killing and injuring innocent people.
Here is the Kenny Clutch video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CIpf2cBFHE
That was the worst hiphop I have ever heard. That crap sucked so bad, It was like listening to someone talk in their sleep. At least we wont have to worry about anything from them being produced again
@GorgeTraveler I watched it and hey..I thought the "N" word was taboo..oh yea..only if your white.
The media is trying to spin Mr. Cherry as an innocent guy that got into an argument. In reality, he too is a convicted felon, arrested many times on gun charges. He was a pimp and drug dealer like the criminal that shot him. No doubt it was the usual gang turf dispute. His arrests were in California.
The vast majority of shootings in the USA fall into this category and are proof gun laws will not stop them. You know why the AP spins it in another direction.
@Goodwin You don't know that he was a pimp or a drug dealer. Your comment is just as bad as what you claim the media are doing. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Â
You know who else has illegal gun convictions? Daryl Issa, the Republican Chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Oh yeah, he was indited by a grand jury for stealing a car too back in the day, a Maserati. Â
@lakeview Who gives a crap if he was or wasn't a pimp or a drug dealer? The guy still has a record, all the while his family (like they all do) spins it like he was just going about his business (?) (nevermind it was in the wee wee hours of the morning), and that they just can't put a finger on what could have POSSIBLY happened.
Oh yeah - operating a Maserati on an "aspiring rapper" income. Come on - get real: bottom line is, you operate in this stereotype & lifestyle, you're more than likely a troublemaker.
@lakeview @Throbbinhood My sympathy lies with the two innocent victims in the cab and their families .They were'nt involved in this dispute in any way and yet paid with their lives.
@Throbbinhood @lakeview  I know stereotyping is easy, I mean c'mon he's black, he's a rapper, and in a fancy car. So he must be a thug. I guess you didn't know that his parents seem to be wealthy and that his dad was helping him make the car payments. Â
Hopefully a rival gang member will take care of this POS before the citizens have to pay to lock up his butt.
This POS needs to be dead.
Using a gun how could that happen? He could not carry a gun legally so we all see that these people don't follow the laws. Ban all guns and the bad guys will still have them.
Do you think some one will try to tie him to the NRA
Tattoos, driving an SUV, a gun, and shooting at someone. The guy must be compensating for the size of something.
I wonder what Father Mylon's reaction would have been if I were to have asked him to make my Maserati payments.
@Getov Mylon I think he might of said,,,,,,,
MASSERRATTII.... my ass!!!! And slapped you upside your noggin..:-}
@hwystar71 The late Father Mylon likely would have given me that long look that was far worse than any corporal familial justice just before he shook his head and silently walked away leaving me to deal with my personal idiocy.
@hwystar71Â Mine wouldn't have helped me pay for a Gremlin, much less a Maserati, bless his soul....... Â ;-)
Just another fine, upstanding member of the community. His days are numbered, for sure.
Yeaaaaayea !! He's a winner, I'll bet his hop ain't hip as it use to be. What a TOOL...