Sergeant allegedly assaults fellow officer

Jen Lawson

Wednesday, June 30, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

A Metro Police sergeant was arrested Tuesday on charges of assaulting a fellow officer at a Henderson gas station, police said.

Sgt. Lawrence Montero, 36, a 13-year veteran of the department, was being held this morning in the Clark County Detention Center on one count each of battery of a police officer and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors.

His bail was set at $4,000 and he was scheduled to appear in court Thursday morning.

The incident occurred about 5 p.m., Sgt. Rick Barela, spokesman for Metro said. Metro and Henderson officers tried to pull over Montero's blue Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck.

Montero didn't stop and a short pursuit took place, ending in the parking lot of a Texaco station at Gibson and Sunset roads, "where he resisted arrest and battered one or more of the officers," Barela said.

Montero, who works out of Metro's northeast area command, was off duty at the time.

The rear tires of his truck appeared shredded after the chase, indicating he might have hit something.

It's not clear why police initially tried to stop Montero's vehicle.

"It involves an internal affairs investigation which is not public and an arrest, which is, so we have to balance that," Barela said.

Tedd Kline, a clerk at the gas station, said three officers chased Montero into the gas station's convenience store, at which point they used a Taser stun gun to unsucessfully try to subdue Montero.

Kline then said he moved outside the store while officers arrested Montero. The entire incident lasted only a few minutes, he said.

"To not put it in better terms, he flipped out," Kline said of Montero's demeanor. "It does get your heart pumping."

None of the officers required medical care, Barela said.

The store closed for about two hours as officers collected evidence from the scene.

"It's unfortunate, to say the least," Barela said.

Montero was hired by the department in February 1991.

He was investigated by the department's internal affairs bureau in 1997 for allegedly giving more than 7,000 rounds of police-issued ammunition to the owner of a health food store in exchange for nutrition supplements.

However, the investigation was dropped because the ammunition could not be traced definitively to Montero and the store owner refused to cooperate with police.

The year before, a bullet fragment grazed Montero's chin after a man suspected of drug trafficking opened fire on officers during a raid at an apartment. Montero did not fire his weapon.

Sun reporter

Stephen Curran contributed to this report.