Woman arrested after suspicious item response at RJC parking garage

A woman has been arrested after police received a report of suspicious item Monday in a parking garage near the Regional Justice Center.

Jessica Vazquez, 33, was booked Monday at the Clark County Detention Center on two felony counts of communicating a bomb threat. The Metropolitan Police Department has not released details of why Vazquez was arrested, but jail records show she was booked under a police event number generated for the police response to the parking garage directly across the street from the courthouse on Lewis Avenue.

Police said they received information of a suspicious item in the garage at 10:07 a.m. Monday. For hours, stretches of Third and Fourth streets were closed in the downtown area as a special police unit investigated. They streets remained closed until just before 3 p.m. when police said without explanation that they were reopening roads and the garage.

Dozens of people spent hours waiting to get to their cars at the garage after doing business at the justice center.

One was Stephen Cook, who had parked in the garage across from the courthouse and went into the building to take care of a ticket. He emerged to see a heavy police presence.

“I come out and I notice some tape preventing anybody from entering the garage,” he said.

By 1 p.m. he’d been standing around for about an hour but still couldn’t get to his vehicle.

“Just gotta wait,” he said. “Could be another hour, two hours. Who knows. I’m trying to get to work.”

Vazquez was scheduled to make an initial appearance in Las Vegas court Tuesday morning.

Woman charged after suspicious item closes downtown parking garage