Gunmen Hold Las Vegas Police at Bay 6 Hours in Robbery

Two gunmen held a group of pawnshop employees hostage and police at bay for six hours Thursday--at one point having a pizza delivered--after a botched robbery attempt they orchestrated with another store employee, authorities said.

Police were called to the strip mall 10 miles north of the Las Vegas Strip after the gunmen barged in the front door about 8:10 a.m., just as employees were opening Super Pawn. Two workers fled into a back room, where they barricaded themselves and called 911, thwarting the robbery, said Clark County Sheriff Jerry Keller.

The robbers released two employees during the morning, including one who turned out to be an alleged co-conspirator and later was arrested with the gunmen. Two other hostages who complained of health problems were released in the afternoon. The two hostages who had barricaded themselves in a room remained there throughout the standoff, Keller said.

None of the hostages were injured.

All businesses within a mile of the store, including a grocery store and a medical center, were shut down and evacuated. An apartment complex adjacent to the business also was evacuated.

“I can’t remember the last time we had a situation this dangerous,” said Las Vegas Metro Police Lt. Rick Alba.

Hostage negotiators had nearly worked out a deal when the gunmen saw reports of the standoff on the noon news, Keller said.

“They would go back into a crisis stage and rant and rave,” he said.

At one point, the gunmen demanded pizza and used a fire extinguisher to create a cloud of vapor as they grabbed the pizza outside the front door.

About 2:15 p.m., the gunmen finally left the shop, backing up one at a time with their hands over their heads. SWAT officers searched and handcuffed the pair.

Police then lobbed a grenade into the building, producing a loud blast that sent debris flying. Officers swept into the building and found the two remaining hostages in the back room unharmed.

Police arrested Howard Alliphant, 26; Tarz Mitchell, 21; and Stephanie Lark, 38, an employee of the store, on suspicion of robbery, burglary and first-degree kidnapping, all with the use of a deadly weapon.

Lark had a connection with one of the suspects, Keller said, but he wouldn’t elaborate.

Employee Nicole Brass, who arrived at the pawnshop to find it cordoned off by police Thursday morning, said the incident did not surprise her.

“We have strange customers come in here all the time,” she said. “I don’t know if one of them just had the guts to take over the store.”