LAS VEGAS — A 24-year-old woman who played basketball at Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado, was among five people killed in a shooting Monday at an apartment complex near Las Vegas, the university's president said.
Kayla Harris played basketball at the university in southern Colorado, where she was working on a master's degree in business administration, said David Tandberg, the university's president. In a statement, Tandberg called it a privilege “to watch Kayla excel on and off the court.”
“It feels nearly impossible to understand and cope with losing a young woman so early in her promising life,” he said.
Police said Eric Adams was visiting his former girlfriend in a ground-floor apartment when they began arguing and Adams shot the woman's daughter, Harris, and her girlfriend, killing them both. He then fatally shot a neighbor, a 20-year-old man, who had come from his second-floor apartment to help, police said.
After shooting the neighbor, police said Adams went into the upstairs unit and again opened fire, killing the neighbor's grandmother and mother and critically wounding his 13-year-old sister.
Adams then “took his ex-girlfriend hostage" and fled in a vehicle, according to the police department. The woman was able to escape in the early-morning hours and flag down a police officer for help.
Just after 10 a.m. Tuesday, police learned that the suspect had been seen at a business in North Las Vegas, and as officers arrived in the area, they saw the suspect with a firearm, running into the backyard of a nearby home.
Officers followed Adams, but he refused to drop his weapon and died by suicide, police said.
The coroner's office also identified the two women killed in the upstairs unit as Damiana Moreno, 59, and Amy Damian, 40. Late Thursday, police said the coroner had identified another victim as Jeannette Faria-Webster, 22, but didn't release any additional details. The name of the other victim hasn't been released.
Police said Adams used a handgun in the shootings but he was banned from owning a firearm because of prior felony convictions. They were still investigating how he obtained the weapon. Nevada law prohibits people with felony convictions from owning or possessing a gun.
Since at least 1994, Adams had been convicted in Clark County for violent felony crimes, including battery, domestic battery and battery on a police officer, according to court records.
More recently, Adams was arrested in February by North Las Vegas police on suspicion of domestic battery by strangulation. The court record shows that the case was dismissed because the victim wasn't cooperating with authorities.
Michael Hyte, a public defender who briefly represented Adams in the case, said Thursday that he had no comment.
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