Police give details of rampage at Apex

Friday, Dec. 11, 1998 | 11:15 a.m.

Metro Police Officer Salvatore Mascoli said that when he and another officer answered a call about a rampaging worker in a front-end loader at a chemical plant north of Las Vegas, he was stunned when the vehicle lumbered into view from behind a building.

"It looked like a creature from Jurassic Park," the 32-year-old officer told a coroner's jury Thursday. "It was the biggest thing I've ever seen."

At nearly 100 tons, the loader was described as fast and agile by plant employees who had watched it pursue and coldly crush a plant supervisor beneath its huge bucket.

Mascoli and Officer Grant Graan, 27, told how they also became targets when they tried to stop the machine and its operator, 55-year-old Frank Lemos.

Mascoli peppered the cab with apparently ineffective fire from his 9mm pistol but a barrage of rounds from Graan's AR-15 assault rifle finally stopped Lemos. He was shot five times but managed to continue operating the machine. The sixth shot, however, hit Lemos in the head and killed him.

After an hour of deliberations, the inquest jury ruled the shooting was justifiable. It did not, however, provide any explanations why the 35-year employee suddenly went berserk.

There had been testimony that Lemos inexplicably had told co-workers in the midst of the events, "They drugged me, call Channels 3 and 13."

But Clark County Medical Examiner Dr. Sheldon Green said no drugs had been found in Lemos' system.

Lemos' family showed no emotion at the verdict. More than half a dozen family members had sat in the front row during the inquest and suggested questions to be asked by the hearing officer, Moapa Valley Justice of the Peace D. Lanny Waite.

They had suggested there were other avenues to end the deadly and destructive incident than shooting Lemos.

But the officers at the scene and many employees of the plant testified that they saw no other way to stop the huge machine and its operator.

Those officers told how they were startled by the devastation that had occurred before they arrived at the industrial area off I-15 about 10 miles north of the Nellis Air Force Base.

There were gaping holes in buildings and cars were crushed, the coroner's jury was told, as was plant supervisor Arthur Reber, 56, who had been pursued by the vehicle until there were no avenues of escape.

Employees at Chemical Lime Co. scurried for safety and they peered uneasily from behind what shelter they could find.

"The scene was chaotic," Mascoli testified, explaining that he and Graan had planned to distract the vehicle's driver and then board the machine and shut it down.

Their plan didn't anticipate the size, power and speed of their foe, they said.

"It was very shocking to see it," Graan said, describing what he believed was a life-or-death battle against a seemingly unstoppable enemy.

Michael Eliasen, the company's general manager, had relayed through a 911 operator a general description of what had occurred, but didn't explain the size of the loader.

In court, he recalled how the incident began on Nov. 10 with Lemos crushing Reber's truck with the shovel of the loader about 2 p.m. and then destroying a portion of the administration building where Reber had his office.

Eliasen said that Reber confronted Lemos and the machine, but quickly found himself to be a target.

Reber scrambled for safety, but the loader plowed into a series of cars, piling them into Reber and pinning his foot.

Eliasen said the loader backed up and that freed Reber for a moment and he tried to reach some railroad cars for safety, but he was caught on the slope just a few feet short of his goal.

"The loader over ran him and the bucket went down to the ground and took his life," Eliasen said.

Lemos then turned his attention to the other buildings, slamming the loader into them, raising the bucket to rip out huge sections and then maneuvering the vehicle a short distance away to repeat the destructive act.

Mascoli said he tried to communicate with Lemos through hand gestures and at one point thought Lemos was ready to open the door of the cab, which was 25 feet in the air, and surrender.

But Lemos paused, made an obscene gesture and quickly maneuvered the machine in an effort to run over the officer, testimony indicated.

Graan said Lemos almost made the huge vehicle hop sideways in its pursuit of Mascoli.

While Graan said he thought his partner had been crushed beneath the 12-foot high tires, Mascoli testified that he had leaped onto a ladder attached to the machine to avoid death.

Graan said he opened fire with his assault rifle through the thick glass of the cab and believed he had struck Lemos enough times to end the rampage, but the operator again hit the accelerator and turned the machine, this time aiming at Graan.

"It seemed like the shots didn't have any effect," Graan said. "It blew my mind.

"I was in the middle of a gunfight, which is where I never wanted to be," the officer testified, explaining that he felt his assault rifle was "a toy" against the loader although its bullets were supposed to be able to penetrate material pistols cannot.

What he didn't know at the time was that his shots had reached Lemos, but hadn't inflicted disabling injuries until the final shot to the head that sent the operator slumping over the controls.

"He's done now," Mascoli recalled saying after checking to see if Lemos had a pulse.

Each officer was asked by Assistant District Attorney Michael Davidson if, in hindsight, anything could have been done to end the confrontation peacefully.

Mascoli said he saw none while Graan said the only non-violent solution would have been for Lemos to surrender.

Each employee who testified was asked if the officers' actions were out of line. They answered, No.

One of those was Robert Stirling, who had attempted to talk Lemos into stopping the vehicle over by means of a radio.

Stirling said he was about 200 feet away from the loader when he told Lemos that he needed to stop the vehicle and that Metro was there. He said he had known Lemos for 10 years and that he sounded normal.

"I asked him, 'Frank, what's going on?' He said, 'Bob, is that you?' I said, 'You've got to stop this. Frank, Metro's out here and you know what they're going to do.'

"Frank said, 'I want Channel 3 and Channel 13 out here. Somebody drugged me.' I said to him, 'Come down, let's talk about this.'

Frank's response: "I'm going to take this building."

Stirling said he knew of past arguments between Lemos and Reber but didn't elaborate.

"I think (Metro) had to do what they did," Stirling said.

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