Man pleads guilty to shooting officer

Wednesday, Aug. 18, 1999 | 10:19 a.m.

In a negotiated settlement, a man who shot a Metro Police officer in February has pleaded guilty to two counts of aiming a firearm at a human being.

Judge Sally Loehrer, on Aug. 4, sentenced 29-year-old Jose M. Rodriguez to two consecutive sentences of six-to-20 years in prison.

On Feb. 28, Rodriguez shot officer Dominic Kaserskie, 25, in the left shoulder and right leg as the officer drove his vehicle down an alley in Meadows Village.

Kaserskie, who spent a day in the hospital before being released, and two other officers were responding to a shots-fired call when the incident occurred.

An officer driving a car from the opposite direction ran into Rodriguez, carrying the suspect on the hood of the car about 75 feet before the man rolled off and under the car.

Rodriguez was not injured.

Metro spokesman Rick Alba said the suspect was trying to get out from beneath the officer's car when he was arrested.

"He was extremely un-cooperative," Alba said at the time of the arrest.

Rodriguez originally was charged with firing into an occupied vehicle, aiming a deadly weapon and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

The incident took place at about 4:30 a.m. in the low-income apartment complex near Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard.

Alba said witnesses told police shots had been fired in the vicinity of an alley that runs between Tam Drive and Industrial Road. Tam is a short street east of Industrial that runs north and south between Sahara Avenue and Boston Avenue.

One patrol car entered the alley from the north, headed south, and two more entered from the south, headed north.

Alba said Rodriquez ran into the alley from the east and began shooting.

At least six bullets from a large caliber, semiautomatic handgun struck the police car's hood and windshield.