Mounting evidence had been leading police to two suspects in the Oct. 2 shooting at a Henderson Police officer, but the pair's own words ultimately led to their capture.
Melissa J. Hack, 25, was arraigned Tuesday in Henderson Justice Court on charges of attempted murder, use of a deadly weapon during a crime and possession of stolen property.
William R. Clark, 23, is being brought from Missouri to Henderson and will face the same charges.
Clark and Hack left Henderson after a pair in a truck had shot at Officer John Longworth about 3:55 a.m. Oct. 2 during a traffic stop, police said.
Clark and Hack drove her car to the home of Hack's uncle in Missouri, police said. Once there, they apparently had plenty to say.
On Oct. 6 a Henderson Police detective received a call from Detective Ron Gondran of the Blue Springs (Mo.) Police department near Kansas City.
Gondran said the department received a call from Hack's uncle the previous day.
Hack's uncle said, "Hack and Clark were at his residence and that they advised him they had shot a cop in Henderson," according to a Henderson Police report.
The Missouri police arrested the two after a lengthy chase Oct. 6, the report states.
"The fact that they told several people they had shot at a police officer assisted in their capture," Officer Terry Bowler, a Henderson Police spokesman, said. "We get a lot of people caught because they talk."
When more than one person is involved, it always seems one of them tells someone else, who in turn tells another person and, eventually, the police know the story, Bowler said.
The Henderson incident began Oct. 2 when Longworth pulled behind a pickup and checked the license plate, according to the police report. The plate belonged to a different vehicle, and the officer tried to pull over the truck on Sunset Road near Eiger Way. The driver of the truck made a U-turn, and several shots were fired at the officer.
Longworth's police car was hit several times, but he was not struck. The officer pursued, but his police car stalled. The truck, which had been reported stolen in Metro Police's jurisdiction, was later found at a nearby business.
Hack's and Clark's fingerprints were found inside and outside the truck. Clark's fingerprints were also found on the ammunition magazine of a .45-caliber handgun in the area by the truck, the report states.
On Oct. 4 a Las Vegas Valley man told police the pair asked him the morning of the incident to hide them for a week.
"Clark told him he and Hack had both 'shot a cop' in Henderson and that they were leaving town," the report states.
Clark had been released from parole in September in connection with assault with a deadly weapon and drug-related charges.
Hack is the former girlfriend of John Butler, the reputed leader of a local skinhead group, who was convicted of killing two anti-racist skinheads in July 1998.
Prosecutors during Butler's trial contended that Hack and another woman lured Daniel Shersty, 20, and Lin Newborn, 25, into a desert, where they were killed.
Hack was never charged in the slayings.
"There is no question we believe she was involved, but we didn't have enough evidence to charge her," said Robert Daskas, a deputy Clark County district attorney who was one of the prosecutors in the Butler trial.
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