Man is shot, killed by Metro detectives

Keith Paul

Thursday, Aug. 22, 2002 | 11:22 a.m.

Three Metro Police narcotics detectives are on leave after shooting and killing a man police say tried to run over one of the detectives late Wednesday -- the fourth person to die in confrontations with officers this year.

Detectives were serving a search warrant at an apartment in the 2300 block of Tam Drive, near Industrial Road and Sahara Avenue. The detectives checked the apartment and then heard a gunshot outside about 10:40 p.m., then saw a man walking toward the apartment, Capt. Dennis Cobb said.

When the detectives called out to the man, he ran to a car and tried to flee. Police allege the man backed out of a parking space and hit one of the pursuing detectives. The detective got up, then stood in front of the man's car ordering him to stop.

Cobb said the man struck the officer again with the car. The detective ended up on the hood of the car and fired. Two other detectives also fired, hitting the man in the car several times.

The driver drove off a short distance before crashing into a fence in an alley.

The man, whose name was not released this morning, was taken to University Medical Center at 11:20 p.m. and was pronounced dead four minutes later, a hospital spokesman said. It was unclear whether he had anything to do with the gunshot police heard.

The officer hit by the car was treated for his injuries at UMC and released, police said.

The names of the three detectives will not be released for 48 hours, per Metro department policy. The detectives will remain on paid administrative leave until the outcome of a Clark County coroner's inquest to determine if the shooting was justified.

Inquest juries cleared officers in the three incidents this year that ended in a suspect's death.

The last person shot to death by Metro officers was David Orr, 40, on June 24 in the area of Cambridge Street and Sierra Vista Drive. Orr was upset that officers were taking his 2 1/2-year-old son into custody after finding him wandering in an alley late at night alone.

Orr confronted the officers and then returned a few minutes later with what appeared to be a gun in his hand. The gun turned out to be a BB gun, but he raised it up at officers and was shot, according to testimony at an inquest.

On May 1, Phillip M. Ramos, 22, was killed by a Repeat Offender Program detective who was doing a surveillance of another person. Ramos apparently didn't know the undercover detective was an officer, drove by cursing the officer for shinning a flashlight on his car. Ramos drove off and returned later in the rear of a pickup truck and fired a shotgun blast into the top of the detective's car.

The detective returned fire, killing Ramos. The detective was not injured.

On Feb. 16 Craig Becker, 46, died after struggling with police at his home. Police were called to his house he was apparently destroying his house and saying he was Jesus Christ. Becker died from restraint asphyxiation.