Police SWAT team shoots suspected kidnapper who was subject of manhunt

Scott Sonner

Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000 | 5:59 a.m.

SPARKS, Nev. - An armed fugitive wanted for a kidnapping and rape in Illinois was shot and captured at a hotel-casino Wednesday after a shootout with a police SWAT team.

A single officer shot Michael Ray Reeves, 46, twice in the chest just before dawn, Deputy Sparks Police Chief Bob Cowman said.

Reeves, who was the subject of a manhunt after being accused of abducting and raping a hotel clerk earlier this month in Illinois, was being treated at Washoe Medical Center. His wounds did not appear to be life-threatening, Cowman said, and he was reported in fair condition.

Reeves fired four shots as he burst out of his motel room into a hallway with a semiautomatic handgun after police fired tear gas into the room about 5:15 a.m., Reno Deputy Police Chief Jim Weston said.

About four hours earlier a Sparks police officer had spotted a car in the parking lot with Tennessee license plates that Reeves is accused of stealing.

The officer noticed ammunition on the car seat and located police warrants for Reeves' arrest.

Officers began evacuating about a dozen hotel guests about 2 a.m.

"They didn't really appreciate being wakened up at 1:30 or 2 in the morning, but when you've got officers in full SWAT gear telling them they need to leave their rooms, they generally say, 'OK,"' Cowman said.

Fourteen SWAT officers gathered as police negotiators contacted Reeves by telephone and tried to talk him out of the room.

But Reeves refused to offer any sign of cooperation, Cowman said.

"He was listed as being extremely dangerous, armed and suicidal," he said. "It appeared to be a real high-risk situation."

After the tear gas shots were fired, Reeves "came out with a hand gun and began shooting toward the SWAT officers," Cowman said.

"One returned fire and struck him twice in the chest. It was just a matter of a minute or so."

Cowman said the officer who shot the suspect had been placed on routine administrative leave pending a review of the case by the neighboring Reno Police Department.

Weston said a preliminary review indicated the suspect fired four shots and the police officer fired four shots, with two striking the suspect. No one else was hurt.

Police in Illinois say Reeves allegedly abducted a woman at the Ramada Inn Limited in Vienna early Sept. 9, tied her up and confined her inside a stolen truck, where he raped her before she managed to escape.

The victim, a married woman with two small children, has not been identified.

Her father, Leonard Bean, a retired Carrier Mills police chief, and his family distributed 1,000 fliers from Mount Vernon in south-central Illinois to Paducah, Ky., to try to help police locate Reeves.

Reeves had checked in under his own name Tuesday afternoon at the Western Village Hotel-Casino on U.S Interstate 80 in Sparks.

Cowman said he was worried that Reeves wanted police to shoot him.

"My fear all along was it may be a case of suicide by police. There was no indication of cooperation, no attempt to conceal identity," he said.

"This is one of those dangerous guys that is good to have off the street. I'd rather not have to use force, but it could have been much worse."