Inquest jury determines police shooting justified

Jen Lawson

Monday, Nov. 8, 2004 | 9:42 a.m.

A Clark County coroner's jury decided Friday that two Metro Police officers were justified in killing an ailing 45-year-old man last month, an incident described by one of the officers as "suicide by cop."

Archangelito Contreras told Officers Joey Hernandez and Gary Torsky that he had a terminal disease and said, "Just shoot me. I'm going to die anyway," Hernandez told the inquest jury.

Contreras allegedly pointed a .44-caliber revolver at Torsky's head and the officers opened fire, hitting Contreras three times -- in the center of the chest, through the left arm and into the chest and in the right knee.

Hernandez said he "absolutely" thought Contreras wanted the officers to kill him "due to the fact that he wouldn't put the gun down. I said, 'Don't point that gun at us or I'll shoot you.' He still pointed the gun."

The jury only needed about 20 minutes of deliberation to reaching its decision.

Linda Contreras, the victim's wife, testified that her husband had been in the electronics field in Santa Clara, Calif., but his vision deteriorated as a result of diabetes, so he could no longer work. He was on dialysis and also had cirrosis of the liver.

His illness made him depressed, she said, and his personality drastically changed. He became violent and verbally abusive toward their 14-year-old son Christopher.

"He talked about killing himself and taking our son with him because he was feeling so bad," Linda Contreras said.

A few months before the shooting, the garage remote was stolen from their car, Linda Contreras said. Arcangelito Contreras' wallet was also stolen around the same time, and he was convinced someone would use the remote to get into their house in the 6600 block of Crown Rock Court near Robindale Road and Rainbow Boulevard.

So, she said, he began sleeping in the garage. Every night he would load his gun, then when he woke up he'd unload it.

The night before the shooting Arcangelito Contreras went into the backyard and fired his gun several times into the air, she said.

The next morning, Oct. 12, Christopher Contreras woke up a half hour late for school and his father went on a rampage, smashing his clock and other items in his room with a hammer, Christopher Contreras said. He threw the hammer at him, hitting him in the head.

Linda and Christopher fled in their minivan and called police. Responding to the call, Hernandez saw Linda Contreras in her vehicle down the street, flagging him down and crying.

"She said he has a gun in the house and he wouldn't put it away and that he was off his meds," Hernandez said.

The garage door was open and Hernandez saw Arcangelito Contreras sitting in a motorized scooter in the garage with a gun in his lap.

Hernandez said he took cover behind a low wall and said,"Metro Police. Put down the gun. Do it now." But instead, Contreras began defiantly spinning the cylinder of the gun.

Torsky arrived at that point and took cover behind a light pole. They both said Contreras started loading the gun, then he waved it in their direction, gesturing for them to leave and cursing at them.

Contreras made a 90-degree turn in his scooter, Hernandez said, and Torsky was about to stun him in the back with his Taser gun. But suddenly Contreras whipped back around and extended his arm, pointing the gun directly at Torsky's head.

"I felt like he was going to shoot my partner," Hernandez said. "It was the most horrific and scariest thing. I felt like there was nothing else I could do."

Both officers fired their guns at Contreras. He was pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel.