Relative I.D.s man killed by police

Jace Radke and Ed Koch

Wednesday, April 14, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.

An unarmed man who was shot and killed by a Metro Police officer Monday night has been identified as a 32-year-old Las Vegan.

The man was identified from a postmortem photo by a relative, Clark County Coroner Ron Flud said today. Flud said, however, that he is still withholding the man's name because his office has to notify the official "next of kin," in this case the man's mother. He was not married, Flud said.

Police say the man had prior arrests for drug charges and assaulting an officer. It was not known whether the man was convicted of those allegations.

Flud would confirm only that the man suffered "multiple gunshot wounds," according to an autopsy performed by his office.

Police say the man was shot five times and that the fatal wound was caused by a bullet hitting him in the right chest. The fatal bullet eventually lodged in the victim's left shoulder, police said.

Police have not released how many shots were actually fired at the victim. The results of toxicology tests done during the autopsy are pending.

Flud said he expects to set an early May date for the coroner's inquest, which during the last 23 years has become a much criticized form of determining whether an officer is criminally responsible for killing a citizen.

While members of the general public serve on the inquest jury and a private attorney acts as the hearing officer, the facts are determined by the coroner's office and presented by the district attorney, both of which have close ties to the police.

Since 1976 none of the officers who were involved in the 85 slayings of local citizens have been found criminally responsible. Three officers in two shootings this year have been cleared by inquest juries.

The officer involved in Monday's fatal shooting has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of that inquest.

On Monday at 11:30 p.m., the officer, riding alone in a marked police vehicle, saw a man running east across Rainbow Boulevard near a drainage canal south of Tropicana Avenue and stopped him, police said.

Investigators said the man acted nervous and reached for a dark object in the front of his waistband. The officer then pulled his weapon and fired several times, police said.

The man was taken to University Medical Center, where he died a short time later.

No weapon was found at the scene, police said.

A small dark glass jar with a metallic lid containing a substance used in the manufacture of methamphetamines was found near the victim's body, as was a plastic-wrapped bundle that could have contained a drug, police said. Chemical tests to determine exactly what was in the jar and pouch are pending.

It is expected that the name of the officer, a two-to-three-year veteran of the force, will be released later today or early Thursday. It is Metro's policy to withhold the name for 48 hours.