Police shoot, kill slaying suspect

Jen Lawson

Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2003 | 11:04 a.m.

A Metro Police detective shot and killed an unarmed murder suspect during a foot chase through a neighborhod near Freedom Park on Tuesday afternoon.

The man, whose name hadn't been released by authorities this morning, collapsed and died in a yard in the 3100 block of Brady Avenue, near Washington Avenue and Mojave Road, Metro Police Capt. Tom Lozich said.

The detective said he shot the man because he thought the suspect pointed a gun at him. Later investigation showed the suspect did not have a gun.

Detectives from Metro's repeat offender program had been conducting surveillance on the man, a suspect in a murder Sept. 30 at the Saratoga Palms East II apartment complex at 2895 E. Charleston Blvd.

The detectives got a tip that the suspect was armed with a gun and was planning to leave town, so about 12:30 p.m., in the 3100 block of East Washington, they stopped the four-door sedan in which the suspect was riding.

They tried to inform him that he was the subject of a grand jury investigation into the Sept. 30 murder, but "when the vehicle stopped, he bailed and ran into a neighborhood," Lozich said.

Uniformed and plainclothes officers chased him. A detective with the repeat offender program caught up with the suspect a few blocks away in the 3100 block of Brady.

The detective later reported that the suspect turned and crouched down "and pointed what he thought was a handgun in his direction," Lozich said.

The detective fired several shots using his service weapon, killing the suspect in a yard on Brady Avenue. Police later discovered that the suspect was not armed.

Elia Corrao, 19, lives two doors down from the house where the shooting took place.

"There were three cops telling a man to put his hands on his head," Corrao said. "It was scary. I was in the kitchen cooking when I heard shooting."

The dead man was suspected of killing Ralph Edward Manor, 26 and wounding another man three months ago at the Saratoga Palms East II apartment complex.

Residents reported hearing gunshots and when police arrived at the complex, they found two men with multiple gunshot wounds.

Manor died several hours later at University Medical Center.

Homicide detectives were in the process of getting an arrest warrant for the suspect when patrol officers stopped the car, Lozich said.

"We heard he was about to flee Las Vegas," Lozich said. He was armed and was determined not to go back to jail, Lozich said.

The name of the officer is being withheld by Metro for 48 hours according to departmental policy. He has been placed on routine administrative leave pending an internal investigation.

A coroner's inquest jury will hear the case within the next few weeks and decide whether the shooting was justified.

The neighborhood where police killed the man has mostly modest, older, one-story homes. Many residents favor chain-link fences and large trees block out the midday sun.

Jose Haro, a five-year resident of the neighborhood, was coming home after picking up his baby when he found his street, Jansen Avenue, blocked off by police tape.

Standing in his doorway looking at the police cruisers gathered down the street, he wondered what had happened in his normally quiet neighborhood.

When told that the suspect didn't live there but just happened to be driving nearby, he said: "That's good, otherwise I'd have to sell my house and move ... We've never seen anything like this before."

A man who would only give his first name, Toby, said he was surprised police had killed a man so close to his home.

"When you have kids, you worry about that stuff," he said, corralling his toddler inside.

The slaying was the 16th officer-involved shooting this year in Metro's jurisdiction.

The last one was Dec. 5, when an officer shot and wounded a suspected prowler in Summerlin. Melvin Gilchrist, 26 was treated for a gunshot wound in the hip and was released from the hospital into police custody several hours later.