Local Police Respond To Strange Calls

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

A pair of out-of-the-ordinary calls kept law enforcement officers busy for a time on Wednesday last week.

The first of these calls alerted Metro officers that a man who was reportedly armed with a machete had been seen trespassing on the property at Reid Gardner Power Plant in Moapa.
Because Reid Gardner is still an operating power plant it is considered critical infrastructure by law enforcement, according to Metro Sergeant Bret Empey. Thus, emergency calls of this kind are given high priority by law enforcement officers, he said.
“We didn’t have a lot of details in the beginning on this call,” Empey said. “Just that there was someone wandering around with a machete at the power plant. But, under the circumstances, that becomes a pretty hot call for us.”

The two Metro officers on duty at the time responded immediately, along with a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper and the local Clark County School District police officer.
Upon arriving on the scene, officers found that the reports from dispatch were not entirely complete. Witnesses at the scene reported that there were three men observed on the property, and one of them had been carrying a handgun.
“That elevated it from a knife call to a gun call,” Empey explained.
Eventually, and with the assistance of Moapa Tribal police, the three men were located and apprehended on Moapa Tribal land southwest of the Reid Gardner property, Empey said.

It was discovered that the three had stolen a pickup truck out of Las Vegas. Inside the stolen truck they had reportedly also found the gun and some knives.
The suspects had determined to travel to Utah in the vehicle and had decided to take off-road routes to get there. Along the way, they had entered Reservation land and had reportedly gotten the truck stuck in a ditch.
The suspects reportedly then began walking, and crossed onto Reid Gardner property. There they approached a worker at the plant and asked for assistance.

The worker reportedly informed them that they were trespassing in an area where they were not allowed. At that point, the three men turned to leave. But as they did, one of the men reportedly pulled the handgun from his pocket, put the magazine into the weapon and then put it back into his pocket. This alerted the worker to call emergency services.
Police responded to the scene, came into contact with the suspects and determined that the vehicle and firearm had been stolen. The suspects were arrested without incident.

While this incident was unfolding, another strange circumstance was in progress at Mack Lyon Middle School in Overton. Two pit bull dogs had wandered onto campus during the school day. Just prior to this, the dogs had reportedly killed a goat owned by a resident in the neighborhood. The dogs thus appeared on the school property covered in blood. This understandably caused alarm among members of the school staff.
School officials imposed a soft lock down of the school, keeping students in the classrooms and away from any potential danger from the animals.

Since the officers on duty were occupied in Moapa, an off-duty Metro officer in Overton, who had heard about the incident, responded to Mack Lyon Middle School to assist in the situation.
Clark County Animal Control was also called to the scene and at least one of the dogs was captured.
No one was injured in either incident.

“Either of these two incidents, just on the face of it, and with the information we were given, might have had the potential of going very wrong,” said Empey. “So we have to play with the hand that is in front of us and respond to the situation as information becomes available. That is what we do all the time. In this case we were lucky and things didn’t turn out to be that bad.”