Odd Turn In Siegfried & Roy Shoot

(AP)  Police say a former player for the Oakland Raiders football team is being sought in a drive-by shooting at the Las Vegas home of entertainers Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn.

Sgt. Chris Jones says Cole Murdoch Ford, 31, whose three-year professional football career ended after he missed crucial kicks during the 1997 season, has been named in a felony warrant stemming from the Sept. 21 shooting.

Police identified Ford as the owner of a white minivan from which shots were fired at the compound owned by the illusionists known as Siegfried & Roy. No one was hurt, but police said shotgun pellets shattered windows and left a hole in a wall.

Police have not said if the two men were home at the time.

Jones said police considered Ford armed and dangerous, and said he might be living in a hotel or camping in southern Nevada or nearby states.

Ford faces six felony warrant charges of discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle and two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

Initially, the case was labeled a hate crime after a witness told police the gunman shouted that the entertainers should get out of the country. Later police said it was not bias-related.

Horn and friends celebrated his 60th birthday on Sunday - a year to the day after a near-fatal tiger mauling left Horn partially paralyzed and forced the long-running Siegfried & Roy show to close.


By Ken Ritter