Witness: Suspect defied order by police

Keith Paul

Friday, March 3, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

A witness testifying at a Clark County coroner's inquest this morning said he saw a man -- who police moments later shot and killed -- jump up from a hiding spot and pull a handgun after police had shouted: "Stop, police!"

Sheldon Scott, who lives across the street from where the Feb. 5 incident occurred in northwest Las Vegas, said he saw the suspect hiding behind a car across from his home. He said he saw police shine a light on the suspect and heard them warn him to stop. But he said the suspect did not stop.

"As the guy jumped up, he pulled a gun from his side," Scott said, adding that the suspect then pointed the gun at approaching police.

The suspect was then shot and killed by two officers who had taken positions on a nearby roof.

Today's coroner's inquest, at which testimony from three people had been heard by press time, was scheduled to determine whether Metro Police officers Zackary Huffine, 23, and Shane Witham, 31, were justified in the shooting death of 23-year-old John Charles O'Banion Feb. 5 about 9:40 p.m. in the driveway of a house on Aberdeen Lane near Torrey Pines Drive.

Also testifying this morning was Joseph Reinel, who said that his home had been burglarized and his 9 mm handgun taken. He said he suspected that the burglary had been committed by his daughter's boyfriend -- O'Banion. Reinel's stolen gun was recovered near O'Banion's body at the crime scene.

Metro Police earlier said O'Banion rose from his hiding place behind a car with a gun in his hand and aimed at officers who had been chasing him. Huffine and Witham, on top of a nearby roof, saw O'Banion and fired at him.

O'Banion was hit by the gunfire and fell to the ground, dropping the gun from his hand. When he reached over and grabbed his gun again, the officers on the roof fired more shots, Capt. Greg Jolley said at the time of the shooting.

In all, the two officers fired 11 shots and apparently hit O'Banion 11 times, police said.

The events that set in motion O'Banion's death began just 12 minutes before he was killed. Police said his blue Ford Mustang without license plates rolled through a signal light at Michael Way and Vegas Drive and kept going when a patrol officer tried to make a traffic stop.

Police later determined the Mustang was stolen and that O'Banion was wanted on several outstanding misdemeanor warrants.

A chase began at about 9:30 p.m. and during the pursuit the Mustang was driven erratically and at times on the wrong side of the street, police said.

Near Alexander Road and Buffalo Drive one of Metro's helicopters picked up the pursuit that ended minutes later in the front yard of a home on the southeast corner of Talmage Street and Dinning Avenue near Torrey Pines Drive and U.S. 95.

More than 30 feet of skid marks from the tires of the Mustang -- caused when the driver attempted to make a left turn -- are still imprinted on Talmage. Instead of completing the turn, the car hit the curb and came to rest near three palm trees in a dirt front yard.

O'Banion ran from his vehicle north across Dinning and kicked open the front door of Raul Newman's home, police said.

"My stepdaughter and her two children were the only ones home when they heard the crashing at the front door," Newman said a day after the shooting. "She was in the bedroom with the 4-year-old, and she was coming out to see what had happened when the man pointed a handgun in her face. She was very frightened."

Newman says the gunman ran through the house and out the sliding door in the rear of the home, leaving Newman's stepdaughter and her two children, ages 8 and 4, unharmed.

The stepdaughter, Michelle Garrett, also testified this morning, confirming that an armed O'Banion had broken through her front door, told her to get down, and had then run out her back door.

Police began searching the area on foot and three officers took a vantage point on top of the roof of a house in the 6500 block of Aberdeen Lane, directly behind and north of Newman's home, police said.

O'Banion was a three-time convicted felon for burglary, auto burglary and possession of a stolen vehicle, police said.

Keith Paul covers crime and public safety for the Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4057 or by e-mail at keith@lasvegassun.com