Coroner’s office IDs dead carjacker

Jace Radke and Mary Manning

Monday, Oct. 27, 2003 | 11:14 a.m.

The man who police said was responsible for carjacking five vehicles, including two police cars, and killing a police dog Friday morning was identified this morning as Daniel Nunez, 23.

The Clark County coroner's office said Nunez of Las Vegas killed himself with a gunshot about 2 a.m. Friday. Metro Police said he shot himself while being chased by patrol cars along U.S. 95. He had no felony record in Nevada, police said.

Police said the series of five carjackings started just after midnight Friday at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Bonanza Road, when two men took a car by force.

About an hour later the stolen car crashed near the Suncoast on Rampart Boulevard, police said. Witnesses told police a person got out of Nunez's car and ran into the Suncoast parking garage, but Capt. Tom Lozich said officers couldn't find that person and called the report "unsubstantiated."

Before leaving the lot, Nunez stole a sport utility vehicle instead, police said. At the corner of Lake Mead Boulevard and Buffalo Drive, police said, Nunez attracted the attention of an off-duty Paiute tribal officer. Nunez pulled a gun on the officer, took the officer's gun and stole his car, police said.

A passenger with the tribal officer flagged down two Metro K-9 officers who were just finishing a dinner break, and the K-9 officers chased the stolen tribal patrol car, police said.

Nunez jumped from the police car at Tenaya Way and Lake Mead Boulevard, leaving the patrol car to crash. Two Metro K-9 officers, John Jenkins, 36, and David Newton, 32, both seven-year veterans of Metro, chased Nunez and exchanged gunfire with him before Nunez stole one of the K-9 SUVs and fled on U.S. 95 southbound, police said.

Homicide Lt. Tom Monahan said Nunez fired at the officers with both his own gun as well as the tribal officer's weapon.

As he led Metro officers on a chase along U.S. 95, Monahan said, the evidence shows he shot himself in the head. The coroner's findings confirmed that conclusion.

"This was pretty straightforward," Coroner Michael Murphy said this morning. "It was clear that this was self-inflicted."

Police also found the muzzled police dog, Buddy, shot to death in the stolen SUV, Monahan said. The SUV crashed into the center median near the Jones Boulevard exit.

"Buddy was a newer dog and he and his handler were just getting to know each other," Lozich said. "He was just starting his career with Metro."

Buddy was expected to become an active member of the K-9 Unit early next year.

A funeral for Buddy will be held at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Craig Road Pet Cemetery near Tenaya Way in northwest Las Vegas. Many other Metro service dogs killed in the line of duty are buried there.

Metro's K-9 unit has 25 dogs -- patrol, bomb-detection and drug-detection dogs. The dogs can cost up to $5,000 each and including training, the costs can total $15,000 to $20,000 per dog.

Friday's fatal shooting of a Metro Police dog was the second time that a Metro dog has been killed in the line of duty. A third was accidentally killed by the officer who was supposed to be taking care of it.

On March 28, 2002, another dog, Rudi, was crippled when the police car he was riding in while headed to a call was struck by another car. Rudi, a 2 1/ 2-year-old Belgian Malinois, was later put to sleep.

In April 1999 another Metro dog died when he was accidentally locked in a patrol car in an officer's garage.

Fred, a 4-year-old German shepherd, was staying in an officer's garage until his kennel could be built. When the officer came home and saw his small son on a tricycle heading for the street, he parked his car in the garage and went to get his son.

Fred apparently saw the open car door and got inside the vehicle. The officer closed the door without knowing that Fred was inside.