A man and a woman are facing federal charges after security officers at a restricted federal complex in North Las Vegas stopped their car at the entrance gate and found a loaded handgun inside, according to a newly unsealed criminal complaint. That discovery set off a records check that connected the gun to an unsolved shooting in a Las Vegas convenience-store parking lot weeks earlier.
Treyvon Jameel Currie and Jessica Marie Zamora were stopped on Aug. 5 at the entrance gate to the Nevada National Security Site's North Las Vegas facility, which sits just off Losee Road north of Carey Avenue, according to court documents cited by KLAS. The two adults drove an unregistered Saturn sedan up to the gate and lacked the credentials needed to enter the site, per the complaint. When they told officers they were with two other people, Damien Frazier and Ashley Jenkins, investigators later determined that Frazier had apparently died several weeks before the incident.
Security officers took the weapon, a black Smith & Wesson SD-9 2.0 9x19mm semiautomatic pistol, to the security office after finding it in a bag at Zamora's feet, per the FBI investigation described in the complaint. Department of Energy security police officers also found a memorial card for Frazier inside the Saturn. Currie and Zamora had no permit to carry a concealed weapon, according to Metro police.
A Records Check Ties the Gun to an Earlier Shooting
A subsequent records check showed that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department had already flagged Currie and Zamora in a separate shooting investigation dated Aug. 2. That shooting happened in a convenience-store parking lot at East Clark Avenue and Maryland Parkway following an argument inside the store, and it resulted in no reported injuries, according to the FBI account included in the complaint. Metro police interviewed Currie and Zamora about that shooting, and surveillance video showed Currie firing a handgun at a man he had argued with, per the criminal complaint.
Currie told investigators that the handgun used in that shooting was the same one later found in the Saturn at the security gate, according to the complaint. He also said there was a firearm in the vehicle and reached under his seat and elsewhere in the car, per the same document. Currie and Zamora admitted their parts in the Aug. 2 shooting, the complaint states.
Federal Charges Stack Up at the Site's Front Gate
The Nevada National Security Site's entrance posts warnings of criminal penalties for violations, prohibiting unauthorized access and firearm possession, with the actual entrance gate positioned roughly 300 feet inside the secure site. Currie and Zamora now face a four-count federal criminal complaint that includes charges of unauthorized entry onto a Department of Energy facility enclosed by a structural barrier, unauthorized introduction of a dangerous weapon onto that same facility, possession or attempted possession of a firearm in a federal facility, and entry or attempted entry by fraud or false pretenses onto U.S. real property with intent to commit a felony.
Federal law under 18 U.S.C. § 930 makes possessing or attempting to possess a firearm in a federal facility punishable by up to one year in prison, rising to as much as five years and a $250,000 fine if the weapon was brought with intent to commit a crime, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Separately, unauthorized entry or bringing dangerous weapons onto enclosed Department of Energy property carries up to one year in prison and fines up to $100,000 under 42 U.S.C. § 2278a, per the Federal Register. The fraud-based entry charge under 18 U.S.C. § 1036 can carry up to five years in prison when tied to intent to commit a felony.
Nevada state law adds another layer of exposure: carrying a concealed firearm without a valid permit is a Category C felony under Nevada Revised Statutes 202.350, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, according to The Vegas Lawyers.
Inside a Sprawling but Little-Seen Federal Complex
The Nevada National Security Site's North Las Vegas facility functions as an administrative center that provides operational assistance to two other Nevada sites and seven more around the country. It is managed by contractor Mission Support and Test Services, LLC on behalf of the National Nuclear Security Administration, according to the Nevada National Security Site. The North Las Vegas complex is distinct from the site's main test range, an approximately 1,375-square-mile stretch of federally owned land in Nye County located about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
The site includes three facilities in Nevada altogether. The North Las Vegas location has also been the focus of recent administrative expansion: in August, the Department of Energy approved plans for five modular office buildings near Losee Road to support ongoing U.S. Air Force administrative operations at the complex.
The criminal complaint against Currie and Zamora was filed earlier in August in U.S. District Court and was initially sealed when released on Aug. 14 before being unsealed on Aug. 31.
