Blood on the Roller Rink
The Crystal Palace Skating Center on Boulder Highway was recently purchased by a Las Vegas local with connections to a shooting at the skating rink. (Berkshire Hathaway Home Services)
The sale was recently announced of a childhood landmark for anyone that grew up in Las Vegas during the 80’s and 90’s – the Crystal Palace Skating Center on Boulder Highway. And while the Crystal Palace locations were remembered for middle school birthday parties and cheap pizza, they were also no strangers to the occasional violent crime.
In fact, the buyer of the Crystal Palace on Boulder Highway has his own connection to a shooting at the skating rink he is in the process of purchasing.
Local press featured routine human interest stories about the Crystal Palace throughout the 80’s and 90’s. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
Morris Poole and his family had experience running a series of skating rinks across the South and planned to pursue the wholesome business out West. The Pooles purchased two Crystal Palace Skating Centers in 1986 not long after their move from Arkansas to Las Vegas – the Boulder Highway location and another on North Rancho Drive.
At the time the Pooles purchased two Crystal Palace Skating Centers the establishments were magnets for violent altercations. Tim Poole said that when his family first bought the Crystal Palace locations, “I had problems. It took me two months to clean out the rough kids.”
Apparently, two months was not enough.
Quote from police investigating a 1988 gang-related multiple shooting at the Crystal Palace on North Rancho. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
Less than two years after the Pooles moved to Las Vegas, one of their skating rinks would be the site of a terrifying mass shooting.
Over three hundred people – largely teenagers – were gathered at the Crystal Palace location on North Rancho on the night of February 15, 1988. Some sort of altercation occurred that evening amidst the patrons enjoying pizza, putting in requests with the DJ, and skating on the maple floor rink.
Witnesses spotted a young man walk out the front door and then minutes latter duck back into the skating rink via a side door with a pistol in his hand. Two other teens entered through the front door at the same time.
The man by the side door shouted, “West Coast Blood!” Then he unloaded from his 9 mm handgun at unknown persons in the crowd. The two other young men by the front door took their cue and opened fire with a .38 and a .357 revolver. Panicked screams immediately broke out over the music as hundreds of people scattered in every direction.
When the shooting stopped, three people had been hit by gunfire and one person sustained injuries from being trampled as the crowd stampeded for safety. The gunmen had escaped by the time police arrived at the chaotic scene at Crystal Palace. However, detectives gathered enough information from eyewitnesses to the shooting to identify the gunman that entered through the side door. Police arrested 18-year-old Perry Maurice Day at his apartment on McWilliams Avenue the same night as the shooting spree.
In the next few days, police arrested two other teenagers for opening fire the night of February 15th. All three suspects were affiliated with the Bloods – one suspect even faced additional charges after his arrest for allegedly intimidating a witness in the unrelated murder trial of a fellow gang member.Eventually, the two suspects tried as adults entered into plea agreements that resulted in Day and his co-defendant receiving prison sentences of between ten and fifteen years.
The families of victim Shawn Irvin and shooter James Menko dueled in the press over responsibility for the deadly shooting in the parking lot of the Crystal Palace. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
A Crystal Palace Skating Center was the scene of another shooting a few years later, but this one resulted in deadly consequences.
On the night of October 14, 1995, James Menko was sitting in the back of his pick-up truck with his 14-year-old sister outside the Crystal Palace on Boulder Highway. Also in the parking lot that night was 21-year-old Shawn Irvin, who was hanging out with a group of friends and relatives.
Menko heard someone walking behind him. As Menko later told police, the next thing he remembered was the sucker punch to the back of his head. Menko and several other witnesses said Irvin struck the young man unprompted to show off to his friends.
Menko responded by retrieving a handgun from the truck and firing three rounds into Shawn Irvin in front of stunned onlookers, striking Irvin in the chest and stomach. Irvin collapsed to the asphalt and was cradled in his brother’s arms as he bled to death. When police arrived at the skating rink, Menko alleged he was acting in self-defense. Despite these claims, Menko was arrested by police on open homicide charges.
Police told reporters at the time of the killing that Menko and Irvin had been engaged in a long-standing feud for the past several months. Menko alleged that he was in reasonable fear for his life and that of his sister because he believed gangs regularly hung out at Crystal Palace and that the punch he suffered was the start of a more serious attack.
Irvin’s family was infuriated at Menko’s claims of self-defense. The victim’s uncle, Rick Irvin, told reporters, “Shawn never carried a gun all his life. Why was this ‘model kid’ carrying a gun? To me there was only one person showing off, and that’s an 18-year-old taking a gun to a skating rink.” Adding to the family’s grief was that Irvin left behind a 6-month-old daughter.
Menko’s mother supported her son’s self-defense claim and argued for leniency. “He’s going to pay a price for what he’s done, but he should not have to pay more than what is his due,” she said.
James Menko eventually pled guilty to a charge of voluntary manslaughter.Menko received a minimum sentence of eight years in prison, and he was also ordered to pay child support for Irvin’s daughter until she reached the age of 18.
Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. was connected to a shooting at the Crystal Palace on Boulder Highway in 2009. Several years later, Mayweather announced his intention to purchase that same Crystal Palace location. (Las Vegas-Clark County Library District)
Bad blood had been building for quite some time between boxing champion and Las Vegas local Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his former employee Quincey Williams, and matters weren’t made any better when Williams sent a text to his former mentor in early 2009 that expressed the desire that the undefeated champ would lose a match.
With that background, Williams encountered Mayweather at the Crystal Palace Skating Center at 4680 Boulder Highway on the night of August 23, 2009. According to Williams, Mayweather approached him and said he could pay to have Williams killed. Around 10:00 p.m. that night, Mayweather and two of his bodyguards were standing in the parking lot as Williams exited the skating rink with a friend.
One of Mayweather’s bodyguards, Ocie Harris, allegedly told Mayweather to leave so that he could take care of Williams. Not long after Mayweather departed the parking lot, Harris fired several rounds at a BMW driven by Quincey Williams. The car was hit six times but neither Williams nor his passenger were injured. Harris was arrested on attempted murder charges, but police indicated that Mayweather was never a suspect in the shooting.
Williams alleged that he continued to live in fear of his life at the hands of his former boss. Local press noted that Mayweather had previously been charged in an unprovoked beating of two women at the Ra nightclub in 2005, and Williams argued that Mayweather was a man of violent impulses that acted with impunity. He alleged in November of 2010 that Mayweather tried to force him off the road with his Bentley near Valley View and Spring Mountain. However, detectives investigated that incident and concluded there was insufficient evidence to arrest Mayweather.
Ocie Harries ultimately pled guilty to charges of assault with a deadly weapon in relation to the Crystal Palace shooting. He was sentenced to two to five years in prison.
As for Floyd Mayweather, he recently announced plans to purchase the Crystal Palace Skating Center on Boulder Highway.