Metro clears four cops in shootings

Keith Paul

Wednesday, April 19, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

Four Metro Police officers were cleared Tuesday night by a department use-of-force board examining two separate shootings earlier this year.

The seven-member board -- composed of four citizens and three officers -- voted unanimously Tuesday night in two shooting incidents that involved the four officers, Deputy Chief Ray Flynn said. The meeting was closed to the public as a personnel matter.

Officers Samuel Solorio and Michael Maloof fired several shots at 18-year-old Roy Palmer of Las Vegas about 2 a.m. March 18 at an apartment complex in the 5800 block of Meikle Lane. The officers were responding to a report that a man with a gun was arguing with a woman, police said.

The officers found Palmer sitting against one of the apartment buildings, holding a gun. The officers ordered Palmer several times to drop the gun. Palmer was accused of instead pointing the gun at the officers, Flynn said.

Solorio and Maloof shot at Palmer several times. He was struck in the chest, right thigh, calf and foot. After the shooting, Palmer ran a short distance and collapsed. He was taken to University Medical Center where he recovered from his wounds.

Palmer faces charges of attempted murder of a police officer.

The board also ruled that Officers Zach Huffine and Shane Witham were within department guidelines in the shooting death of 23-year-old Charles O'Banion on Feb. 5, Flynn said.

The officers shot and killed O'Banion as he tried to fire a gun at other officers in the driveway of a house on Aberdeen Lane near Torrey Pines Drive. A Clark County coroner's inquest jury ruled last month the officers' actions were justified.

A use-of-force board is standard in all officer-involved shootings, even when an inquest rules the shooting justified.

During the inquest, testimony indicated O'Banion didn't know how to turn the 9 mm handgun's safety off. He repeatedly tried to fire at officers, but he was never able to get a shot off.