Police confident that killers of two guards will be caught

HENDERSON, Nev. - With a number of clues to follow and the city's entire detective staff working the case, Henderson police said Monday they were confident the killers of two armored car guards would be caught.

The gunmen, who escaped with several bags of money in the robbery, remained at large Monday, but Henderson Police Capt. Richard Perkins said detectives were working a number of promising leads.

''I've got every detective I've got working on this,'' Perkins said. ''We've got a lot of angles we're covering.''

Area hospitals continued to be on the lookout for one of the gunmen, who police believe was shot during an exchange of gunfire Friday with one of the guards.

And Perkins said police were looking into three armored car robberies in the Las Vegas area over the past two years to see if there might be any connection to the latest incident.

''There are some similarities, but there are only so many ways to rob an armored truck,'' Perkins said.

Perkins said his investigators, who are being aided by Las Vegas police and the FBI, have received hundreds of leads on the two gunmen and the driver of the getaway car used in the robbery outside a clothing store.

Guards Ricardo S. Sosa, 47, and Gary Dean Prestidge II, 23, were shot by gunmen firing automatic weapons outside the store.

''It's hard for me to fathom why they would chose that location,'' Perkins said.

Michael Mayberry, the city's acting police chief, said he was confident the case would be solved.

''I think we're going to catch them because we're working around the clock, and we're going to stay on it until we catch them,'' Mayberry said.

Perkins agreed.

''Knowing how these cases are worked and the talent we've got, I would share the chief's enthusiasm that this will be solved,'' he said.

Police believe one of the gunmen was shot in the leg in an exchange of gunfire with Prestidge, who was outside the truck when they approached. Both the guard and the gunmen fired a total of about 15 shots, Perkins said.

A getaway car found abandoned at a nearby shopping mall had a large amount of blood inside, leading authorities to believe the gunman was seriously wounded and would have to seek medical attention.

Perkins said police may never know who fired first in the parking lot of the Ross Dress for Less store late Friday morning. Prestidge was killed in the gunfire, and Sosa, who had been in the truck, was gunned down as he got out to investigate.