KEN RITTER
MICHELLE RINDELS
LAS VEGAS – Authorities say they had no choice but to kill one rampaging chimpanzee and tranquilize another after the primates escaped a Las Vegas-area backyard and tore through a neighborhood, pounding on cars and jumping into at least one vehicle.
No people were hurt when the agitated animals escaped their enclosure about 10 a.m. Thursday and started running through yards and opening car doors in a community of horse pens, palm trees and tile-roofed, landscaped homes.
Area resident David Plunkett said he saw the male chimpanzee leap on top of a police car – with its lights on and an officer inside – before the animal jumped to the ground and headed into a vacant lot.