Officers identified in shooting death of man

Jace Radke

Monday, June 4, 2001 | 10:32 a.m.

Metro Police this morning released the names of two gang unit officers who shot and killed a 21-year-old man over the weekend wanted in connection with a Henderson homicide.

Officers Carlos Acosta, 31, and Damian Walburn, 30, were put on routine leave with pay pending the outcome of a Clark County coroner's inquest into the shooting of Jeff Canterbury in an apartment just west of the Stratosphere Tower in the Meadows Village neighborhood.

Canterbury was staying at the apartment in the 2200 block of Tam Drive and was found in a back bedroom with his 17-year-old girlfriend when police entered the residence about 3 a.m., Capt. Dennis Cobb said.

Police say that Canterbury was using his girlfriend, Nichole Maestas, as a shield as she sprawled on top of him on a bed, and that he was holding a handgun at her side.

Police tried to convince Canterbury to drop the gun, but he pulled Maestas off him and raised the handgun, causing two of the officers to shoot, Cobb said.

Maestas tells a different story, saying that Canterbury never had a gun in his hand, and didn't use her as a shield.

"I'm the one that crawled on top of him," Maestas said sitting on the bed where Canterbury was killed. "He didn't have the gun in his hand, but it was next to him where he could get it. He never pulled it. He just peeped his eye out from behind my head and they shot him. The bullet went right by my ear."

Canterbury's brother, Derrick Canterbury, said that his brother wouldn't have pointed a gun at police with Maestas in the room.

"They both loved each other, and he never would have pulled the gun if there was a chance she would be hurt," Canterbury said. "If he was by himself, he would have probably shot at the police."

Detectives with Metro's gang unit tracked Jeff Canterbury to the apartment through a tip, police said.

Henderson Police had been searching for Canterbury in connection with the May 26 slaying of Norman Edward Byers, 20. Byers was found shot in the head at the Morrell Park Apartments, 525 Harris St., near Boulder Highway and Basic Road, and he died Tuesday at University Medical Center after undergoing extensive brain surgery, Henderson Police spokeswoman Valerie Klein said.

Henderson resident Jeremy Buckles, 24, has been arrested and charged in the murder, but police were pursuing Canterbury as a second suspect.

Maestas said that Canterbury told her that he did not shoot Byers.

"He told me he didn't pull the trigger," Maestas said. "Someone took his gun and shot that guy."

Buckles, who is being held at the Henderson Jail, refused a request to be interviewed Sunday, Klein said.

Once it was determined that Canterbury was in Meadows Village, police arrived in the neighborhood and showed a photo of Canterbury to several residents, Cobb said.

Residents directed police to an a small complex of 20 apartments in two buildings divided by a small courtyard. The apartments are numbered one through 10 in each two-story building, and police initially mistakenly stormed apartment number 5 in the northern building. Canterbury was inside apartment number 5 in the southern building.

Police broke out three windows in the first apartment they stormed and will pay for the damage they caused, police said.

The noise and the number of police in the area alerted Canterbury that he would soon be facing capture, Maestas said.

"We heard them go in the other apartment, and he knew they were coming for him," Maestas said. "He told me he loved me, and that no matter what happened he loved the time he spent with me. He told me he wasn't going to shoot. He didn't want to die."

Derrick Canterbury said that his brother was involved with a gang when he was younger, six years ago in Mississippi.

"It was just something he did when he was a kid," Canterbury said. "You hear a lot of things making him out to be a drug dealer or a gangster, and that's not how it was."

Jeff Canterbury moved to Las Vegas about three years ago, after the death of his father, Maestas said. She admitted that she and Canterbury sometimes used drugs including marijuana.

"He ran the streets," Maestas said. "He liked to run around and have fun, but he was a sweet guy who took care of me."