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The police spokesman wouldn’t say whether investigators determined if Cherry owned, rented or borrowed the Maserati. Cassell called that information "integral to the investigation."
Meanwhile, Boldon’s family struggled to cope with his death.
"It’s very devastating for us, for my family," said Tehran Boldon, 50, younger brother of the 62-year-old taxi driver. "Our family has no history of violence or gang membership that would predict losing a family member to such an event."
Boldon’s sister, Carolyn Jean Trimble, said Boldon was a father, a grandfather and a car enthusiast. He was one of five children born and raised in Michigan, where he took care of his ailing father, who fought cancer, before moving to Las Vegas to be with his 93-year-old mother.
Bolden had owned a clothing store in Detroit and worked at a car dealership, his sister said. He began driving taxis after moving to Las Vegas about 1 1/2 years ago.
Boldon loved watching IndyCar and NASCAR races and drove a Mercedes when he wasn’t in a cab. An avid car enthusiast, he tried to persuade Trimble to buy a Bentley, she said.
"Everybody just loved him," the older sister said. "When that car hit that cab, Mike had to be in there talking and laughing."
The irony that a man with a taste for beautiful cars was killed by a sports car wasn’t lost on Trimble.
"He would be tickled to death: ‘Damn, of all things, a Maserati hit me, took me out like that,’" she said. "I’m happy he didn’t suffer."
Besides Cherry’s passenger, police said five people were treated for injuries after the six-vehicle crash. No one was said to face life-threatening injuries.
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Jogger Eric Lackey snapped a cellphone photo of the blazing scene moments after the crash. Black smoke billowed from the flaming taxi, amid popping sounds from the fire.
The famously glowing, always-open Las Vegas Strip was closed for some 15 hours before reopening Thursday night. One Nevada Highway Patrol sergeant recalled a similarly long closure after the 1996 drive-by slaying of rapper Tupac Shakur.
That shooting — involving assailants opening fire on Shakur’s luxury sedan from a vehicle on Flamingo Road — happened about a block away from Thursday’s crash.
The Shakur killing has never been solved.
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