Gunman holds off police before giving up

Keith Paul

Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2001 | 11:04 a.m.

A man described by neighbors as quiet and a survivalist is charged today with keeping dozens of Metro Police patrol and SWAT officers at bay for hours Monday afternoon, firing about 50 gunshots before surrendering.

Police were called to Ronald Lane, near Charleston and Lamb boulevards, about 12:15 p.m. Monday on a report that a man was in a back yard with a gun. When police arrived, they heard gunshots and pulled away from the area as they saw the man run into a trailer.

Steven J. Burson, 42, was arrested after a three-hour standoff.

In the next hour, police say, the man fired bursts of gunshots as officers rushed people from their houses to an area a safe distance away. SWAT officers surrounded the trailer behind Burson's sister's house.

Some of the shots fired came close to hitting officers, they said.

"When a bullet is fired it has to come down somewhere," Capt. Dennis Cobb said. "We wanted to first make sure that no one would be injured."

By 2 p.m., as neighbors were either across the street at an office building or standing in a group a couple of streets away, more gunshots could be heard.

Police say Burson then pointed a gun out of the trailer and fired at three SWAT officers. One of the officers returned fire. Neither the officers nor Burson was hit.

Police negotiators continued to talk to Burson through a loudspeaker, and about 3 p.m. he came out of his trailer. He climbed over a fence with a shotgun in one hand and a pistol in his other hand, but quickly threw them down after spotting numerous SWAT officers training their rifles on him.

Burson was taken into custody and booked into the Clark County jail on three counts of attempted murder of a police officer. He was on suicide watch this morning in the jail, said Capt. Henry Hoogland of Metro's detention division.

No one was injured by any of the gunfire.

Why Burson apparently fired off shots in the backyard and then continued firing as police arrived was still being investigated this morning, but police didn't seem to have a reason.

"We really just don't know why right now," Cobb said.

A neighbor, who didn't want to be identified, said mostly Burson just stayed in his trailer, but every once in a while he would be seen in his back yard stomping around and yelling.

Neighbors described Burson as a Vietnam War veteran, but police could not confirm that. Burson's family could not be reached for comment this morning.

Most residents were stunned that shots were being fired in their neighborhood.

"I couldn't believe it. This is a very quiet neighborhood," said Jean Allen, who has lived two streets down from the scene for 22 years. "In all the time I've been here this is only the second time something has happened. About 10 years ago there was a drug bust, but nothing else."

The shots blasting away was something normally only seen on television happening in some other area, other neighbors noted.

"You never think that something like this is going to happen to you," said Tara De Leon, who was stopped by police as she was walking to her sister's house after getting out of Las Vegas High School for the day.

Parents walked outside the evacuation area holding the hands of their small children, still fearful of gunfire.

"This is scary, because there are so many kids around here," said Deirdra Perry, who was holding her 4-month-old daughter and grasping the hand of her 4-year-old son.

"It's been an epidemic here with one killing after another recently," she said.

Perry was referring to the 19 homicides in January -- the third highest one-month tally in Metro's history.

Monday's shooting was also the fourth officer-involved shooting this year and second in two days.

Sunday night police exchanged gunfire with 20-year-old Karoline M. Bradley of Las Vegas. Bradley was reportedly seen with a gun in the area of Sixth and Fremont streets. About an hour later officers found her in the area of 13th and Fremont streets.

Police say Bradley fired her gun at a Metro sergeant, and the sergeant fired back. Neither was hit. She ran to a nearby motel, where she killed herself, police said.

On Jan. 28 three Metro officers were ambushed as they entered a unit at the Hampton Court Apartments on Swenson Street near Flamingo Road. The officers were responding to the report of a gunshot in the apartment when two suspects fired shots from an assault rifle and a shotgun.

One suspect surrendered and another was found dead in the apartment, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. Two officers and an apartment security guard were injured by the gunfire.

On Jan. 17 David Herrera, 27, was shot and killed by Officer Alfred Woodruff in front of his parents' home in a neighborhood near Tropicana Avenue and Nellis Boulevard.

Officers tried unsuccessfully to get Herrera to drop a knife that he had apparently used to threaten two state mental health workers. Officers first shot non-lethal beanbag rounds at him and then used pepper spray before police say Herrera continued to come at the officers and was shot.