Vegas Police Find Person of Interest, Had Released Wrong Woman’s Photo
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LVPD(LAS VEGAS) — Las Vegas police have located and interviewed a woman they identified as a person of interest in the Las Vegas strip attack that killed rapper Kenny Clutch in his Maserati and two other people in a taxi.
Police were searching for Tineesha Lashun Howard, 22, in addition to prime suspect and fugitive Ammar Harris, 26, who is the subject of a nationwide manhunt.
“[Howard] is no longer a person of interest because she was located and interviewed by LVMPD detectives in another state last night at approximately 8:30 p.m. Pacific time,” police said in a news release Thursday. “[She] has confirmed that she was in the vehicle at the time of the shooting.”
The news came after an apparent police mix-up with the photos of Howard released by authorities. On Wednesday, police released four photos they said showed Howard. One was a mug shot and the other three were candid photos that showed a woman with Harris.
However, two of the candid photos turned out to be a Florida woman and reality TV star named Tasha Malek who said she knew Harris but was not at all involved in the shooting.
Malek, 25, said she had left Miami to go on vacation in the Bahamas and did not even know there had been a shooting in Las Vegas.
“It’s just a really big mess and so now I have to clean it up,” Malek said. “I’m a professional, I have a career and this is not me. I’m definitely not a prostitute and it’s just a mess. I wasn’t with him. I knew him from Miami and that was it.”
Malek said she met Harris when they lived in the same apartment building in Miami and they became friends. “He seemed like a very nice guy, very normal,” she said. “This came as a shock to me.”
An argument between Harris and Clutch, 27, whose legal name was Kenneth Cherry Jr., originated in the valet area of a Las Vegas hotel, police said, and ended with Harris firing several rounds into Clutch’s Maserati, causing a crash that killed three.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Las Vegas Metro Police Department’s homicide division at (702) 828-3521.
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