Las Vegas police make second arrest in connection with alleged 2023 gang-related shooting

A man was arrested Saturday in connection with a 2023 shooting that prosecutors have described as a gang-related ambush ending in a friendly-fire killing.

Lynnarion Washington, 48, is in custody on charges of open murder, conspiracy to commit murder and discharging a gun at an occupied structure, all with gang enhancements, online Clark County Detention Center records showed Sunday afternoon.

Washington was one of four men indicted in March over the killing of Curtis Smith, 18, on April 1, 2023. The other men indicted were Ishad Livingston, Terrell Shelton and Jamario Lofton, who was arrested in March.

Livingston has been serving a sentence that began last year for a gun charge at Southern Desert Correctional Center, Nevada Department of Corrections online records show. Jail and corrections department records do not show that Shelton is in custody as of Sunday afternoon.

In the early hours of April 1, 2023, the Metropolitan Police Department responded to multiple calls reporting that people in two cars were shooting at each other near Sunrise Mountain Drive and Tamara Costa Court in the east Las Vegas Valley.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Madilyn Cole previously said that Washington, Lofton, Smith, Livingston and Shelton were in a street gang named “YNIC” and had an ongoing feud with another gang named “Spazzout.” She said the five men had been monitoring the location of two Spazzout members who were the intended victims of the shooting.

Authorities believe Lofton shot Smith in the back of the neck during the shooting, according to Lofton’s arrest report.

About 30 minutes later, police have said, the four men dropped Smith off at the emergency entrance doors of Centennial Hills Hospital, got back in their stolen Kia Sportage and drove off. Smith died from his injuries on April 7, 2023, according to police.

District Judge Jerry Wiese issued arrest warrants for the four men in March along with release conditions, including $300,000 bail, high electronic monitoring and no contact with gang members.

Lofton’s jury trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 24, Clark County District Court online records show.

Washington is also facing a pending firearm case in Clark County, and prosecutors have said he was twice convicted of federal gun charges.