Officer describes firing fatal shots into man who had stabbed him

Bill Gang

Monday, March 15, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

A Clark County coroner's jury watched Friday as Henderson Police Officer Brian Flatt relived on videotape the afternoon of Feb. 11 when he killed J.C. Daniels after being stabbed three times.

"Oh, my god, he's going to kill me," Flatt recalled thinking.

As he stood at the Henderson apartment complex where he confronted Daniels, Flatt's voice wavered with emotion. The officer of four years told how he had approached Daniels and asked the man to produce some identification.

Daniels replied by attacking, stabbing Flatt in the back of the head and his left arm.

Flatt then demonstrated how he backed away from the knife-wielding assailant while reaching for his pistol.

The officer explained for the camera that he fired two shots, which seemed to slow the man's charge, then paused before firing a flurry of additional shots outside the Oasis Greens Apartments at 2001 Ramrod Ave.

"I kept shooting because he wouldn't go down, he wouldn't go down," Flatt said, the strain obvious in his voice.

Finally, with the 21-year-old suspect on the ground with six bullet wounds, Flatt said he looked at his left arm and saw the blood that had soaked his sleeve and called his dispatcher for assistance.

In contrast to the video, Flatt's testimony Friday at the inquest was anti-climactic and brief, adding little to his videotaped version.

The jury ruled the shooting death was justifiable. It deliberated just 23 minutes.

Daniels' father, J.C. Daniels Sr., questioned whether deadly force needed to be used and called the jury's conclusion "a whitewash." The elder Daniels, through written questions, also asked the officer about where he aimed the shots.

Flatt could not explain how the fatal shot was fired into the back of Daniels' head, telling the jury that he was doing what he was trained to do -- fire at the "center mass" of the suspect to stop the pursuit.

"My intent was to stop him from killing me," Flatt testified. "I kept shooting until I didn't think my life was threatened anymore."

The use of a video narration -- produced by Metro Police -- has been a mainstay in recent inquests as a way of showing the scene of a shooting.