A 22-year-old alleged Las Vegas drug dealer wanted in connection with a deadly wild shootout will make his first court appearance Thursday after he was nabbed by authorities in Pomona.
The Las Vegas gun battle killed one person and injured another in front of an apartment building during a violent argument over drugs.
Kanan Traub was arrested Tuesday evening by the Pomona Police Department/FBI Safe Streets Task Force in coordination with the Los Angeles County Probation Department, officials said.
Traub, who police described as an Altadena Blocc Crips gang member, was being held without bail and was due to appear in court in Pomona on Thursday, according to Los Angeles County sheriff’s inmate records.
Pomona police did not release details about the alleged attempted murder in Nevada, but according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal it occurred during an exchange of gunfire late on the night of May 3.
The newspaper reported that 49-year-old Shawn Lamont Todriquez was arrested on suspicion of murder following the gunbattle. He told police he accidentally shot and killed 30-year-old Daniel Heintz while returning fire at Traub, who allegedly shot and wounded Todriquez’s girlfriend while firing at Heintz, according to an arrest warrant cited by the Review-Journal.
The girlfriend told officers that Heintz and a “white boy,” later identified as Traub, had gotten into an argument near the gate of an apartment complex. The two men were rival drug dealers from the area and had a previous dispute over stolen marijuana, the Review-Journal reported, again citing the arrest warrant, which stated that Traub shot at Heintz but the gunfire struck Todriquez’s girlfriend.
As Heintz ran away from Traub and toward Todriquez, Todriquez grabbed a .40-caliber handgun from inside an apartment and shot toward Traub, instead hitting Heintz, the newspaper reported.
Todriquez is due in court in Las Vegas on Wednesday, according to the Review-Journal.
–City News Service