Coroner’s inquest jury clears police in killing

Keith Paul

Friday, Aug. 18, 2000 | 9:49 a.m.

A Clark County coroner's inquest deliberated about 25 minutes Thursday before ruling that four Metro Police officers were justified in shooting and killing a robbery suspect.

Fearing an officer was about to be run over by the suspect, the officers -- Sgt. David Schvaneveldt, Detective Chris Tomaino, Detective Michael Game and Officer Joseph Lepore -- fired a total of 26 times at a car driven by 19-year-old Frakelin Marice Hardy at the intersection of Tropicana Avenue and Swenson Street on July 10.

The seven jurors heard from more than a dozen witnesses during the six hours of testimony in the Clark County Courthouse.

Jurors didn't hear from a 13-year-old runaway girl from Bakersfield, Calif., who was in the car with Hardy and was wounded in the shooting. She currently is in the Clark County juvenile detention center charged with carrying a concealed weapon. She also faces robbery charges in California.

Each of the officers testified they yelled several times for Hardy to stop the car, which was surrounded by police and citizens' cars at a stop light.

Schvaneveldt testified he and another gang unit detective were next door when a call came out that the Rum Runner bar on Tropicana Avenue had just been robbed. He said he saw a gunman running from the bar to a waiting car.

The officers followed Hardy in his car, with police lights and sirens on, to the intersection where several officers surrounded the car, according to testimony.

Detective Gale Jaeger testified he was in front of Hardy's car when he thought the car was pinned in and Hardy was ready to surrender. Then, Jaeger said, Hardy turned the wheel, gunned the engine and the car came at him.

"I jumped over the hood of the car and landed next to his passenger side door," he said.

That's when the other officers started shooting. All four testified they felt Jaeger's life was in danger.

Taxicab driver Garry Rumery, whose cab was in the intersection at the time of the shooting, testified he thought the officers' actions were justified.

"If it was me, I would have shot," he said. "If the man in the little car (Hardy) would have listened to the officers, no shooting would have happened.

Schvaneveldt fired five times, Tomaino fired seven times, Game shot three times and Lepore discharged his weapon 11 times.

"I feared for that gang detective's life," said Lapore, 23, an officer for about a year. "I shot until the threat was stopped, until the vehicle stopped.

The four officers will remain on administrative leave with pay until a Metro use-of-force board determines if the shootings were within department guidelines.

Hardy and the 13-year-old girl are accused of robbing at least two stores in Bakersfield before coming to Las Vegas. The crime spree started after Hardy's mother threw him out of the house, apparently disgusted that he was dating such a young girl, Bakersfield authorities said.

None of Hardy's family was at the inquest.