Woman upset cops shared pic in Vegas shooting

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) -- A local woman is upset that police mistakenly released a photo of her in connection with a triple homicide on the Las Vegas Strip.

Tasha Malek spoke out on the same Thursday afternoon the fugitive police had wanted for the deadly Feb. 21 shooting, Ammar Harris, was arrested by a team of police and federal agents in Los Angeles.

Las Vegas police were initially looking for a woman who was in the car at the time of the drive-by shooting. They released two pictures. One of Tineesha Howard, also known as Yenesis Alfonso, of Miami. The other was of Malek, whose picture was mistakenly used as Howard by police.

"It was really, really hard to see myself on TV like that," said Tasha Malek. "Everybody was like, 'Are you involved this?' My family was worried. It was really, really scary."

Malek, who at one point was on a reality TV show, says her world was turned upside down. She has now hired an attorney to straighten things out. "I don't know what they're thinking," said Michael Grieco, Malek's attorney.

Thursday morning, Las Vegas police said, they had found Howard, aka Alfonso. She is no longer a person of interest. But where does that leave Malek? Grieco said, "It doesn't take more than a few minutes to sit down and assess the photos and see that they're two different people."

Malek admitted that she knew Harris when he lived in Miami, but had not seen him for quite some time. "I knew him pretty well," she said. "He was a friend of mine. He didn't seem like a person who would do that, so it was hard to see him, and I feel bad for the victims' families, but it happened, and it's sad situation, but I shouldn't have been brought into it."

Though Harris is arrested and Howard is no longer a person of interest, Malek said she has still suffered a lot, and this story is not over.

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