Officer wounds passenger in oncoming car

Jace Radke

Monday, May 8, 2000 | 10:44 a.m.

A Metro Police officer is on paid administrative leave this morning after shooting at an oncoming car Sunday evening while responding to reports of a large fight in a northeast Las Vegas park.

A 23-year-old passenger in the car was wounded in his thigh and treated at University Medical Center and released Sunday.

Jamal Wheatley, 29, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Three other men were arrested and released.

Just after 7 p.m. police dispatchers received several calls of gunshots and a fight involving a large number of people in Alexander Villas Park, 3620 Lincoln Road, Deputy Chief Ray Flynn said.

"We had calls telling us that hundreds of people were fighting," Flynn said. "Numerous Metro officers and Clark County park rangers began arriving, and there were several hundred people in the park."

One arriving Metro officer stopped his car in the middle of Lincoln Road on the west side of the park and began walking toward the 5.4-acre park. As he moved across the street, witnesses pointed out a 1981 Buick about a block south of the officer where Lincoln meets Gowan Road.

"They started saying, 'That's the car, that's the car,' " Flynn said. "At the same time, the car spun out and started heading north on Lincoln. The car began drifting toward the officer, who motioned for it to stop, and when it didn't he discharged his weapon several times."

At least one of the bullets hit the Buick and struck the 23-year-old passenger in the leg, police said.

The Buick drove past the officer, narrowly missing him, Flynn said. Traffic officers estimated that there were 129 feet of skid marks from where the Buick screeched forward to where it nearly hit the officer.

The car was found a few minutes later about four blocks away parked in a garage in the 3800 block of Kellogg Avenue. Police took the four men inside into custody.

"The officers in this area have been working this park because there has been a lot of gang and criminal activity here, so they are familiar with it," Flynn said.

Flynn would not comment on if the fight was gang-related, saying only that the incident remains under investigation.

Witnesses at the park estimated that the officer fired anywhere from four to 10 shots at the oncoming car.

"It was a lot of shots," a man playing basketball in the park just before the shooting said. "It sounded like an army was shooting."

Another man estimated that about 50 people were involved in the fight that led to the shooting, and several people said they heard gunfire during the fight before officers arrived. No other injuries were reported, and the park was emptying out when police arrived, Flynn said.

The officer who fired at the Buick has been with Metro for three years and per department policy has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. His name will not be released for 48 hours.

The shooting was the eighth time this year that a Metro officer has fired a weapon in the line of duty.

The last officer-involved shooting was on April 19, when an officer fired two shots into a pile of clothes in the back of a car near Pecos Road and Las Vegas Boulevard. The officer was searching the back seat, which was covered in loose clothing, but as he began moving the clothes some of them fell to the floor and he fired.

The last time an officer fired and hit a person was on March 21 after a car chase. Police say a 16-year-old driving a stolen car crashed, but then tried to drive off, despite the presence of an officer in his path. The officer fired at the car, wounding the boy in the leg.

There were 15 Metro officer-involved shootings in 1999. Jace Radke

is a reporter for the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-2318 or by e-mail at jace@lasvegassun.com