A 28-year-old man is accused of luring a group of men to a Northeast Hazel Dell location and shooting at them.
Najee L. Scott made an in-custody first appearance Wednesday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of three counts of first-degree assault. Judge Gregory Gonzales set bail at $350,000, and an arraignment was scheduled for Dec. 18, according to court records.
Around 2:40 p.m. Nov. 9, Clark County sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a shooting on the 6200 block of Northeast Sixth Avenue, behind the El Tapatio restaurant. An arriving deputy found three men standing near a work van, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The deputy noticed a bullet hole in the passenger side top corner of the windshield, according to the affidavit. The bullet, which was not found, appeared to have entered from outside the van and hit metal above the headliner, the affidavit said.
Nathan McCracken, one of the three men inside the van, told deputies that he received a text message asking him to repair a white Chevy Impala, according to the affidavit. While driving to the job, McCracken told the other two men in the van — John Graves and Louis Trudeau — that he was suspicious because a previous upset customer lived nearby.
When the van arrived, Trudeau exited and approached the Impala, which was flanked by two men. The two men asked Trudeau if he was McCracken, who then yelled at Trudeau to return to the van. As Trudeau sprinted back and entered the passenger side, one of the two men shot at them, the affidavit said.
The men in the van quickly reversed and fled the scene. They called 911 from a separate location and, once deputies arrived, struggled to speak due to fear from the incident, according to the affidavit.
McCracken was the only one of the three men who saw the gun, describing it as a mint or “Tiffany Blue” semi-automatic handgun, the affidavit said. He told deputies that he had previously performed a job for an unhappy client — later identified as Scott’s girlfriend who lives near the shooting scene — on Oct. 29.
In August, Scott contacted police to report that a woman was prowling his white Chevy Impala, telling officers that he was living with his girlfriend, according to the affidavit. After combing through past police reports, Scott’s physical description nearly matched the one of the shooter provided by Trudeau, the affidavit said.
Trudeau identified Scott as the shooter with 80 percent certainty during a photo montage, according to the affidavit.
Scott was arrested Tuesday on a Clark County Superior Court warrant, court records show.
Scott was previously charged with eight counts of attempted murder in a separate case, according to the affidavit. Those charges were dismissed, and he was convicted of multiple counts of unlawful use of a weapon and sentenced to five years in prison as a juvenile.
