A man believed to have fatally shot someone at the Aliante Casino caused a frenzied police pursuit that included several carjackings and collisions Thursday morning, as stated by the North Las Vegas Police Department.
Officers arrived after receiving reports of a shooting at the casino at approximately 4:30 a.m. and discovered the victim dead. The individual, identified on Friday morning as 18-year-old Aerion Warmsley, had escaped the location.
Around 5 a.m., Metro police received a call regarding a collision near Spring Mountain Road and Interstate 15. Officers discovered that the vehicle implicated in the accident was the same one linked to the Aliante homicide.
During the inquiry into that accident, officers got reports of a carjacking involving a weapon and swiftly made the connections. They monitored the stolen car with license plate readers to the central area.
Officers chased the vehicle heading east on Boulder Highway. Warmsley left his car in the drive-thru of a fast-food place before executing a second carjacking and taking off quickly. Officers persisted in pursuing the individual who was driving faster than 105 mph.
According to police, the suspect crashed into a bus stop at Boulder Highway and Tropicana Avenue, injuring at least two pedestrians, one of whom was critically hurt. The pursuit carried on after the suspect successfully hijacked a third individual’s vehicle.
“The speeds were just so fast we couldn’t keep up,” Undersheriff Andrew Walsh told reporters at a news conference, adding that by this point a helicopter was assisting in tracking the suspect.
Ultimately, law enforcement managed to crash into the vehicle and apprehend the driver at about 9 a.m.
Warmsley is confronted with one charge of open murder involving a deadly weapon and one charge of robbery with a deadly weapon.
“These cops didn’t give up, leadership didn’t give up,” Steve Grammas, president of the Las Vegas Protective Association, a police union, said in a social media post on Thursday. “They said, no, this person will be caught. They knew this man had to be apprehended, so they chased him down and the subject was eventually taken into custody.”
A few hours following Warmsley’s arrest, Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown of North Las Vegas presented her 2025 State of the City address at the casino. The Las Vegas Review-Journal indicated that she did not speak about the homicide.
