Board clears cop in shooting

Jen Lawson

Tuesday, March 2, 2004 | 10:44 a.m.

A Metro Police officer who shot and wounded an alleged dog hit man was exonerated by the department's use-of-force board, Deputy Chief Greg McCurdy said Monday.

Officer Bryan Yant responded to a prowler call Dec. 5 in a Summerlin neighborhood and found Melvin Gilchrist armed with a black baseball bat and large knife, police said.

Gilchrist had been hired by a man to kidnap or injure a Rottweiler that had killed another dog the day before, police said.

Police allege Gilchrist charged at Yant and the officer returned several shots, hitting Gilchrist in the hip.

During the hearing Wednesday, members of the use-of-force board had the chance to view the weapons Gilchrist carried and McCurdy said they were struck by how much the bat resembled a pistol-grip shotgun.

"They actually said the officer used good tactics, and they're happy he's alive," he said.

The use-of-force board, established in 1991, reviews incidents in which a citizen is killed or injured by a member of the police department using any type of force, except in vehicle crashes; actions by an officer that could have resulted in death or serious injury; and deliberate shootings.

Unlike a coroner's inquest, which makes rulings on officers' actions based on guidelines set up by state law, the use-of-force board determines whether officers followed Metro policies.

Board members examine officers' actions, procedures, training and supervision, McCurdy said.

The board can rule that the complaint is sustained, not sustained, unfounded, the misconduct occurred but was not part of the original incident or the misconduct occurred but it could have been prevented if a policy were more complete. It can also exonerate the officer.

In most cases the officer is exonerated, McCurdy said, but there have been some in which the officer involved was found to need additional training. Statistics were not available Monday.

Metro officers began carrying Taser stun guns last year, but McCurdy said that won't affect the use-of-force board.

"I don't expect for it to be an issue at all," he said, because the board only hears cases involving serious injury or death.

A 26-year-old man, William Lomax, died last month after being stunned with a Metro officer's Taser several times, but the Clark County coroner's office has not yet determined what caused his death.

The fact that the board does not look at cases involving Taser guns is troubling, said Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"That suggests to me that as a matter of general principle they have prejudged all cases involving Tasers," Peck said.

The department "urges the public to withhold judgment" on the Lomax case until all the facts come in, Peck said, but "they have already concluded before any of the facts are in that the use of the Taser could not have been the cause or the contributing cause" of death, he said.

The board last week also exonerated Sgt. Clint Robison, who shot and killed a homicide suspect during a foot chase in December. Robison was cleared in February by a coroner's inquest jury.

The board includes a chairman, a Metro officer with the rank of captain or above, a peer of the officer in question, a member of the department's training bureau and four citizens.

McCurdy recently announced that Metro is looking for new citizen members to serve on the board.

Qualified applicants must live within Metro's jurisdiction and cannot be personally affiliated with Metro or any of its members.

McCurdy, the use-of-force board chairman, said 25 citizen members will be screened and put into a computerized data bank. Whenever a use-of-force board meeting needs to be scheduled, four citizens will be randomly picked via computer.

Citizen members serve two-year terms with the possibility of serving a third year and must complete six hours of training.

Just over 20 use-of-force board meetings are convened per year, McCurdy said.

Applications for the use-of-force board are available at all Metro substations and on the department's website (lvmpd.com). For more information, call 229-3511.