Lawsuit vowed in police killing of teen

Keith Paul

Monday, April 2, 2001 | 10:57 a.m.

The parents of a teen shot by a North Las Vegas Police officer have vowed to file a civil rights lawsuit following a corner's inquest that cleared the officer of any wrongdoing.

"It's not going to stop here," Sherry Finks said Friday in promising the lawsuit. "I think they only told one side of what happened."

The Clark County coroner's inquest jury needed only 30 minutes Friday to rule that Officer Anthony Bailey was justified when he shot and killed 16-year-old Billy Ray Finks Jr., who Bailey said held what turned out to be a toy gun when he got out of a stolen car on Feb. 27.

Bailey testified at the inquest Friday that when he saw the chrome barrel from about 30 feet away he thought it was a real gun and fired two shots.

"I saw him holding the chrome revolver and yelled for him to drop the gun," said Bailey, an officer for a year. "I knew if I waited any longer, I would be shot and killed."

The only other witness was 15-year-old Demario Payton, the passenger of the car.

Payton testified that Finks got out of the car with his hands in the air and didn't have the toy gun. He denied he ever told police Finks had the gun.

Payton in a videotaped statement made the day of the shooting said Finks threw the toy gun to the ground after he was shot.

Sherry Finks defended Payton, saying the police intimidated the teen, and he was upset at the time of the videotaped statement.

"He just saw his friend shot down," Finks said. "They shouldn't have even spoken to him without calling his parents, because he is only 15 years old."

Police said they questioned Payton because he was a witness, not a suspect.

Two Cheyenne High School students testified Friday that a teen in a brown car pointed a chrome or silver handgun at them while they were walking away from the school a short time before the shooting.