Shootings at Las Vegas-area apartments that left 5 dead stemmed from domestic dispute, police say

LAS VEGAS — An argument between a man and his ex-girlfriend escalated when he pulled out a gun and opened fire in an apartment complex near Las Vegas earlier this week, killing five people and seriously injuring a 13-year-old girl, authorities said Thursday.

The shooter, Eric Adams, later committed suicide when North Las Vegas police officers confronted him.

Police said Adams was visiting his ex-girlfriend in a ground-floor apartment Monday night when they began arguing and Adams turned the gun on the woman’s 24-year-old daughter and her girlfriend, killing them both. Adams then fatally shot an upstairs neighbor, a 20-year-old man, who had come downstairs to help.

After shooting the neighbor, Adams went to the second-floor apartment and opened fire again, according to police. He killed the neighbors’ grandmother and mother and injured his teenage sister.

Adams then “took his ex-girlfriend hostage” and fled in a vehicle, according to police. The woman was able to escape in the early morning hours and flag down a police officer for assistance.

Just after 10 a.m. on Tuesday, police learned the suspect had been seen at a business in North Las Vegas, and when officers arrived in the area, they saw the suspect running into the backyard of a nearby home with a firearm.

Officers followed the suspect, but he refused to drop his weapon and died by suicide, police said.

According to the Clark County coroner’s office, Adams was 48 years old when he died, not 47 as police initially reported.

The coroner has identified the 24-year-old victim as Kayla Harris, but has not yet released the names of the four other victims.

Harris played college basketball at Adams State University in southern Colorado, where she was working on a master’s degree in business administration, said David Tandberg, president of the university.

In a statementTandberg called it a privilege “to see Kayla excel on and off the field.”

“It feels almost impossible to understand and cope with the loss of a young woman so early in her promising life,” he said.