A 15-year-old victim was hospitalized after being shot near Mews Lane and Searles Avenue while walking home from school.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A 15-year-old girl accused in the shooting of another 15-year-old girl appeared in juvenile court Friday on an attempted murder charge after the victim was critically wounded near two Las Vegas schools, according to police and courtroom reporting.
The shooting was reported shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday near Mews Lane and Searles Avenue, east of downtown Las Vegas. Metropolitan Police Department officers found the injured girl and medical personnel took her to a local hospital. Police initially described the victim only as a female before confirming Friday that she was a juvenile.
Investigative reporting by KLAS-TV said the girl was walking home from school when she was shot in the face. A prosecutor said during the juvenile court appearance that the accused girl used a shotgun. The prosecutor also said the victim was in a coma at a local hospital. Police separately described her condition as critical.
The accused girl, also 15, was not publicly identified because she is a juvenile. Police said the shooter left the area before officers arrived but that a female juvenile had been taken into custody by Friday morning. The attempted murder allegation remains a charge, and the court proceeding does not establish guilt.
The circumstances that led to the gunfire remain under investigation. Kathryn Roszko, a motorist who stopped near the scene, told KLAS that children flagged her down after the shooting. She said the victim’s brother and another child were calling for help when a police officer arrived and began providing aid.
Roszko said children at the scene told her that two groups of teenagers had been involved in an earlier dispute near a McDonald’s. According to her account of what the children said, the groups later encountered one another in an alley and a gun was produced as people began to run. Police had not publicly confirmed that sequence of events as of Saturday.
Roszko also said witnesses had cellphone video that helped identify the suspected shooter. That account came from a witness rather than a public police statement, and authorities had not released details about what evidence investigators recovered or whether a firearm had been found.
The shooting occurred less than half a mile from Rancho High School and next to Bracken Elementary School. The Clark County School District notified Rancho families about the police investigation and said counseling resources were available for students who may have been affected. School officials directed questions about the investigation to Metro police.
Authorities have not publicly released the names of either girl, additional charges, a possible motive or further details about the investigation. The victim remained hospitalized in critical condition in the latest police update, and the case against the accused teenager was proceeding through the juvenile justice system.
Author note: Last updated October 3, 2026.