Officer cleared in man’s death

Jen Lawson

Monday, Nov. 22, 2004 | 9:43 a.m.

A North Las Vegas Police officer who was cleared in two prior shootings was again found to have been justified in killing a 28-year-old man last month.

Officer Mike Carmody, a 12-year veteran of the department, on Friday told the inquest jury that he had no other choice but to kill 28-year-old Antonio Corona last month.

Corona, who was drunk, had fired two shots into the ceiling of his apartment and had fired another shot when he saw Carmody approaching him, Carmody said.

"It would have been my fault" if he had shot an innocent person in the neighborhood, Carmody said. "It was incumbent upon me to stop him."

Beatrice Lopez, who said she was Corona's fiancee of five years, said Corona came home from his plumbing job Oct. 12 and was in a bad mood.

He began drinking tequila and watching "The Day After Tomorrow" with 16-year-old neighbor Francisco Ruvalcaba, but halfway through the movie, the boy said Corona got his gun and fired two shots into the ceiling.

Ruvalcaba said he wasn't frightened and continued watching the movie. Maria Romo, Corona's sister-in-law, lives in the apartment above him near Lake Mead and Las Vegas boulevards. She called police and said he was firing a gun inside.

Corona then went outside, shouting "It takes a man to kill a man," Lopez testified.

Carmody was dispatched to the apartment in the 1800 block of Harvard Street at Oxford Street. He was told the armed suspect was outside.

Carmody said he approached cautiously and parked on Oxford, then got his shotgun from his trunk and walked toward a man wearing a muscle shirt who was standing in front of the apartments.

"He looks at me, I look at him, and he starts screaming," Carmody said. "He went basically crazy and started yelling and screaming and fired a shot."

It's not clear where the bullet hit, but Carmody, who was trying to use a lightpole as cover, said: "My first reaction was he was shooting at me."

Several other officers were arriving and Corona started charging toward them with a gun in his hand, Carmody said.

"I was afraid he was going to shoot me, the other officers or someone in the neighborhood," Carmody said.

Carmody fired twice at Corona. Dr. Lary Simms of the coroner's office said Corona was hit with 16 buckshot pellets, and that his blood alcohol level at the time of his death was 0.17, more than twice the legal limit.

Simms also said he found an old bullet lodged in Corona's chest from a prior shooting.

Asked by Deputy District Attorney Jim Miller if he would have done anything differently, Carmody said, "I would have done the exact same thing."

The inquest jury came back with its unanimous decision in about 40 minutes. Local defense attorney Michael Van served as the hearing officer at Friday's inquest.

Carmody was involved in two other shootings, in 1998 and 1995. His actions were found to be justified in both.

In the 1998 incident, he responded to a domestic violence call on Belmont Street in which 34-year-old Sergio Oliva was holding his wife hostage in a car.

Oliva allegedly pointed a loaded .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol at Carmody and ignored the officer's commands to drop the gun. The inquest jury found Carmody acted in self-defense.

And in 1995, Carmody and several other officers got into a gunfight gunfire with Enedino Bautista after Bautista stole North Las Vegas Officer Paul Elizondo's gun during a traffic stop, then shot and killed Elizondo.

Bautista was shot several times in a shootout with police and later shot and killed himself. It was unknown if any of Carmody's bullets actually struck Bautista.