Suspect, officer wounded in gunfire at Strip hotel

Jen Lawson

Monday, Jan. 12, 2004 | 10:58 a.m.

A Metro Police officer and a man arrested on carjacking charges suffered gunshot wounds during a shootout outside Paris Las Vegas early Saturday.

The man, Keenon Babcock, 24, was in fair condition at University Medical Center this morning, authorities said.

Kenny Delzer, 30, a Metro officer since August 2001, was treated at the hospital for a gunshot wound in the upper leg and released.

Police said a vehicle was carjacked shortly before 2:30 a.m. at Charleston and Decatur boulevards, and minutes later officers spotted the car nearby, but when they tried to pull it over, the driver fled, Capt. Tom Lozich said.

Several Metro cruisers chased the fleeing mid-sized car with their sirens blaring, police said.

The chase ended after about five minutes, when the car rear-ended a taxicab stopped at a red light in the 3600 block of Las Vegas Boulevard South.

When the driver jumped out of the stolen car, police say, he pointed a gun at the officers and then ran toward Paris Las Vegas.

At the front door of the building, the man turned and fired at least one shot at three officers who were chasing him, police said.

"What made him turn and fire, I'm not going to speculate," Lozich said. "I don't know what his motivation was."

Delzer and Officer Patrick Walters fired several bullets in return, and at least one of those bullets hit the man in the face.

Walters, 37, has been with Metro since January 2002, Officer Jose Montoya, spokesman for Metro, said.

Babcock was booked into the Clark County Detention Center in absentia on three counts of attempted murder of a police officer, robbery with a deadly weapon and resisting police.

"He clearly posed a threat when he fired at the officers," Lozich said. "We were able to take him into custody without him endangering anyone else's life."

It was Metro's first officer-involved shooting of 2004.

Last year Metro officers were involved in 17 shootings. Seven were fatal.

Delzer was on the scene of one of those police killings last year, but he is not alleged to have fired his weapon.

He and several officers responded to a domestic disturbance call Feb. 28, 2003, at a home near Rainbow Boulevard and Russell Road.

The suspect, Orlando Barlow, had threatened a woman in the house with a 12-gauge shotgun. She fled the house to call police from a pay phone, leaving her seven children alone with Barlow, a five-time felon she had met on the bus a week earlier.

Following officers' orders, Barlow came out of the house and appeared to be surrendering.

Delzer, who was one of the officers closest to Barlow, approached him to handcuff him. Delzer was within 5 feet of Barlow when Barlow allegedly moved his hands to his waist.

Another officer, Brian Hartman, who said he feared that Barlow was reaching for a weapon, fired his police-issued assault rifle at Barlow, hitting him in the back and killing him. Police later found that Barlow had been unarmed.

A coroner's inquest jury ruled the shooting was excusable.

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