Neighbors scared by early morning shooting

Josh Crevling was awake when shots rang out across the parking lot at the Royal Vista Apartments on Imperial Way just before 2 a.m.

At first, said the 21-year-old, he thought it was "kids slapping something together."

"Then we hear screaming. We look outside and we see neighbors outside wondering the same thing. We hear more screaming. This is when the cops show up with a bullhorn. My friend John stepped out, and the cops were yelling at John to get back in the apartment. Five minutes after that, we were one of the first apartments to be evacuated."

Pamela Castillo has lived in the complex for just 30 days, she said.

She saw her next-door neighbor, alleged shooter, Richard Lanvane, just a couple times going in and out of his apartment. He was quiet, she said.

Castillo was asleep when she heard shots ring out. She distinctly heard four shots. After that panic set in, she said.

Castillo was one of several phone calls to 911. When police evacuated the complex, she did not hear a knock at her door.

Castillo sat frightened and alone in the dark for 90 minutes before she peeked her head out of the doorway and saw police all around.

"I didn't know what else to do," she said with an uneasy laugh. "I just opened the door because it had been quiet for a while."

John and Ashley Dagbay were awakened by the flash bang grenades set off in Lanvane's apartment when SWAT team cleared it.

The couple looked out their doorway to see paramedics loading a stunned-looking Lanvane onto a stretcher. They were surprised by the ruckus.

"It's usually quiet around here," Ashley said.

Evacuations of some 30 tenants from the complex began at 2:13 a.m., according to dispatch logs. For the next two hours those same tenants, some in their nightclothes, stood about a half block away from the scene or sat on a school bus called there by the sheriff.

Crevling said it was cold outside. There were infants among those evacuated and elderly people too.

"I was a little upset that (the sheriff's department) didn't put much effort into helping us out," he said. "We never had anywhere to go to the bathroom, a majority of us were cold, and people were thirsty."

Sheriff Ken Furlong called for a bus an hour after the standoff began. It arrived at 3:30 a.m. Once people were on the bus, he said, a cadet offered to get water.

"We certainly wanted to get as much services to the people as rapidly as possible, and accessing those services means you have to wake people up and bring people in," said Furlong. "We have no requirement to provide for a bus. We have no requirement to do any of that. But we saw a need and did what we could. We sent people to get blankets, and when that wasn't enough we called more people in to get more blankets.

"Our first priority is securing the scene and safeguarding lives. I apologize. We did the absolute best we could do. Was there a need for more services? Yeah. It would be nice to have a big old bus like that standing by with water and supplies sitting at the city yard. But as much as we'd use it, it would dry rot," he said.

• Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.