Inquest finds officers justified in casino shooting

Jen Lawson

Monday, May 10, 2004 | 9:20 a.m.

Kensen Lee was tending bar at the Eureka Casino the night of April 1 when an irate gambler complained to him that he had lost all of his money on video poker. Rolando Lappin-Mendez said he won a jackpot but had accidentally hit the double down button and lost it all.

Lee summoned slot technicians to see if they could retrieve the 20 credits Lappin-Mendez claimed he had on the machine, but the gambler wasn't satisfied.

"He said, 'I'll give you half the money, just give me my money back,' " Lee testified Friday during the coroner's inquest into Metro Police officers' killing of Lappin-Mendez.

Lee refused, and he said, "the next thing I know there's a gun right in my face."

Lappin-Mendez's anger over the alleged gambling mishap apparently sparked a chain of events that left a casino patron and Lappin-Mendez dead moments later, the coroner's inquest jury was told.

The jurors decided that Officers James Breed and Sasha Kaster were justified in shooting the 51-year-old Lappin-Mendez after he pointed a gun.

Lee, 45, testified that he nearly wound up as one of the dead that night himself. He moved his head away just as the gun went off, he said. The gun was so close that he suffered a gunpowder burn on his face.

He dived under the bar and hid. Witnesses said Lappin-Mendez stood on the bar rail, leaned over and shot twice more in Lee's direction. None of the bullets hit him.

As he crouched under the bar, Lee said he heard a barstool fall.

"When I heard that, I knew he (Lester Staniowski) had intervened to save my life," Lee said. Staniowski, 51, a cab driver and a regular at the Eureka, had tackled Lappin-Mendez. The gunman shot Staniowski twice, killing him, and then darted out the back door.

Casino patrons ducked for cover and a few ran from the building screaming for help.

Kaster and Breed were at a Pep Boys automotive store nearby on an unrelated call, when two people ran over to them and said someone had been shot. The two officers rushed over to the casino.

Lappin-Mendez, who had climbed into his car in the Eureka parking lot, allegedly began driving toward Breed, who was on foot. The officers said they didn't know at that point that the gunman was behind the wheel. Someone in the parking lot told Kaster that the gunman was near the Dumpster. Kaster ran over to it, she testified, then she heard Breed say, "Get down," followed by several shots.

Breed said Lappin-Mendez had stopped the car abruptly, jumped out of the car with a gun in his hand and began screaming at him in a foreign language.