Officer shoots boy, 16, after teen appeared to pull a gun

Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002 | 9:41 a.m.

Metro Police charged a 16-year-old boy with resisting a police officer on Wednesday after a patrolman fired several shots and hit him, fearing the teenager was pulling a gun from his pocket.

The suspect was treated and released from University Medical Center for a single shot in the waist, Deputy Chief Ray Flynn said.

He was booked into the Clark County Juvenile Detention Facility hours after the shooting on a felony charge of resisting a police officer.

No Metro officers were injured.

Descriptions of the weapon carried by the suspect varied between officers and witnesses. To police, it looked like a handgun. Witnesses at the Summerhill Apartments, at Pecos Road and East Owens Avenue, said it looked like a BB gun.

Metro officers late Wednesday said the teenager was carrying a pellet gun designed as a replica of a pistol.

Two officers had arrived at the complex about 4:15 p.m. Wednesday, Flynn said. They were searching for a wanted suspect, he said, and had gone to the apartment's office.

"They saw a person with a bulge in his pocket," Flynn said, noting that they saw the outline of a weapon. The person started running through the complex with the officers in pursuit.

As the suspect approached a block wall, he pulled a weapon from his pocket and turned toward the officers, Flynn said. At that point three shots were fired by one officer, he said. "The suspect was struck once in the torso," Flynn said.

Dozens of residents milled around the complex as police placed yellow tape around entire buildings.

Moments after the shooting, the officers involved called for help.

"There was definite tensions," Flynn said. "We had dozens of officers respond for crime scene control."

At least a dozen detectives interviewed witnesses.

Witnesses, however, told a different story than police did.

Jenoria Langstaff of Las Vegas said she was walking outside when she heard two shots.

"I ran, saw the boy down and yelled, 'That's your baby,' to the mother," Langstaff said.

Langstaff, who said she was the suspect's godmother, said she saw the officers shoot twice.

At least five Metro officers had surrounded the boy, she said. "There was no reason to shoot him for a BB gun," Langstaff said.

Another resident, Aleacha Lavoll, said she was near the back of the complex where the shooting occurred when she heard officers yell, "Freeze."

"The boy threw the gun down, but kept on running," she said.

Others at the complex said that the boy either threw the gun down or dropped it.

The officer was placed on administrative leave and his name will be withheld for 48 hours, standard Metro Police policy, Flynn said.

"This shooting will obviously be reviewed," Flynn said. Any officer-involved shooting is normally reviewed by Metro's Use of Force Board.

Police never did find the wanted suspect, Flynn said.

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