Two suspected car thieves sought after gunfight with police

Monday, Aug. 30, 2004 | 11:09 a.m.

The Metro Police officer who returned fire after a fleeing suspect allegedly fired at him during a foot chase has been identified as 36-year-old James Breed, who has been with the department for 12 years.

No one was injured in the shooting, police said.

The incident occurred about 11 p.m. Breed and another patrol officer spotted a stolen car in the area of Sierra Vista Drive and Cambridge Street near Maryland Parkway and Desert Inn Road.

When they tried to pull over the green Mazda, the two occupants stopped the car and ran away on foot in opposite directions, Capt. Tom Lozich said.

Breed chased a suspect into the Kimberly Place apartments, a mostly abandoned complex at 895 Sierra Vista Drive, Lozich said. The officer reported that as he followed the suspect, the suspect turned and fired at him, missing the officer. The officer fired two shots back, also missing, Lozich said.

Both suspects were still at large this morning. One was described as a black man, about 6 feet tall, wearing knee length shorts or long pants and a vertically striped shirt. The other was described as a black man wearing a football jersey. However the man apparently took it off during the foot chase; it was found along the escape route, police said.

Anyone with information on the suspects is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 385-5555 or the homicide section at 229-3521.

In May, Breed, a patrol officer with the south central area command, was cleared of any wrongdoing after shooting and killing a homicide suspect outside the Eureka Casino.

Police said Rolando Lappin-Mendez had killed a bartender inside the casino and then pointed a gun at Breed in the parking lot.