Attorney grills officer over details of shooting

Jace Radke

Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

Metro Police Officer Bruce Gentner told a U.S. District Court jury on Tuesday that he feared for his life when he shot John Perrin to death in 1999.

Gentner testified for more than four hours during the second day of a trial involving a $25 million lawsuit filed against Metro by the victim's mother, Connie Perrin.

When Metro's lawyer, Walter Cannon, asked Gentner what he was thinking as he fired the first of 14 shots at Perrin, Gentner said: "I thought I was going to be shot and killed."

Brent Bryson, Connie Perrin's attorney, questioned Gentner for about 3 1/2 hours, walking the officer step-by-step through the shooting of his client's 32-year-old son.

Bryson spent much of the time role-playing and asking Gentner to demonstrate exactly what happened when he stopped Perrin along Rainbow Boulevard south of Tropicana Avenue about 11:15 p.m. on April 12, 1999.

Gentner testified that he asked Perrin to move to the front of his patrol car, was ignored, and then ordered Perrin to the front of the car. Instead Perrin uttered an expletive, put his hands down to his waistband and partially turned away, Gentner said.

Gentner testified he started yelling at Perrin to show his hands, but Perrin instead moved toward him, and Gentner saw what he thought was a gun being pulled from Perrin's waistband.

"I saw what I perceived to be a gun," Gentner said. "I thought it was a gun. I saw a metal surface. It looked like it had a metal tip."

Gentner said he then fired a volley of shots at Perrin, but stopped when Perrin turned his back to him for a matter of seconds. Gentner said he continued to scream, "Show me your hands!" But Perrin spun back around and appeared to pull something from his waistband, so Gentner fired a second volley of shots, the officer said.

Bryson tried to focus on pointing out differences in Gentner's testimony Tuesday and his previous testimony given to Metro homicide detectives on two occasions -- at a Clark County coroner's inquest and in a deposition.

The differences centered on Perrin's alleged meeting with a second man at the southeast corner of Rainbow and Tropicana, after Gentner said he witnessed Perrin jaywalk across both streets.

On Tuesday Gentner testified that there were quick hand movements between the two men, and that he believed a drug transaction had taken place. In his deposition Gentner said that he was certain that a drug deal had occurred.

Gentner also said Tuesday that once he made eye contact with the two men as he headed south on Rainbow, the man talking with Perrin left the area heading southeast. At the coroner's inquest, Gentner testified that he saw the two men turn and run south on Rainbow after making eye contact with him.

Bryson also asked why Gentner didn't call in to his dispatcher to report the jaywalking or the alleged drug deal.

"At that point my intention was not to arrest him, but to stop and detain him and question him," Gentner said.

Several times during the questioning, Cannon objected to what he said was an argumentative stance by Bryson, and the majority of the objections were sustained.

Perrin died shortly after being shot six times. Perrin didn't have a gun, but police say he was carrying a shiny, black jar containing iodine crystals, a chemical used to manufacture methamphetamine. The jar, no bigger than 4 inches high and 2 inches in diameter, was found on the ground near Perrin's body.

The trial is scheduled to continue today before U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt.