Friday, April 3, 1998 | 10:23 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- A state correctional officer who shot and killed an escaping prisoner Thursday was following policy when he did not first fire a warning shot.
"Once you've made a decision to shoot, then you do not fire a warning shot," state Prison Director Bob Bayer said.
Steven Schaaf, 40, serving a 40-year term from Clark County for attempted murder, apparently used a homemade key to slip out of his shackles as he emerged from a van to visit a doctor's office near Carson Tahoe Hospital.
He broke away from the two guards. Angel Dey, who witnessed the incident, said she saw the inmate running around the side of the medical building followed by two guards. "I heard an officer say, 'Shoot him.' Then came a shot and the prisoner fell."
Dey, a copy editor for the Nevada Appeal newspaper, said she thought this was a practice session at first.
The shot fired by Senior Correctional Officer Charles Looman, an employee since 1989, hit Schaaf in the back.
Looman has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, which is being handled by the Carson City sheriff's office.
Schaaf was being escorted by two officers to the office of Dr. Kent Gabriel, for removal of stitches on his left arm.
Dey said everything came to a stop around the building after the shooting. She said one woman was placing her baby in a car seat. Dey said the woman yelled at the officers: "You could have done it away from the baby."
Schaaf was received at the prison in 1987 and had served 11 years on the two counts of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon. He had been involved in some misconduct but nothing serious at the prison, said spokesman Glen Whorton.
If Schaaf was ever released, a hold had been placed by Arizona, where he had been convicted of first-degree murder and had been sentenced to a life term.
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