Police shoot, kill armed man after domestic dispute

Published Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009 | 7:59 a.m.

Updated Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009 | 2:20 p.m.

Officer-involved shooting

Metro Police are investigating an officer-involved shooting that started as a domestic dispute late Wednesday night in the northwestern Las Vegas Valley that left a man dead.

Officers arrived in the 7700 block of Golden Talon Avenue near North Buffalo Drive and Elkhorn Road at about 10:48 p.m. Wednesday after receiving a call from a woman saying she was involved in a domestic dispute with her husband, police said.

The woman told police her husband had a gun and that he was sitting outside the house. When officers arrived, they saw a man seated next to a vehicle in front of the house armed with what appeared to be two handguns. An officer trained as a Crisis Intervention Team member tried to negotiate with the man for more than 15 minutes, police said.

The negotiator's attempt to convince the man to drop both handguns wasn't successful, police said. The man stood up and began moving toward the house, where his wife and 3-year-old child were, police said. Officers, fearing for the woman and child's safety, opened fire and wounded the man, police said.

The man was taken to University Medical Center's Trauma Unit and underwent emergency surgery, but didn't survive, a police spokeswoman said.

Metro Police homicide detectives are investigating the shooting and expect to release further details, police said. The Clark County Coroner's Office hasn't released the identity of the man who was fatally shot.

The officers involved in the shooting will be identified after 48 hours under police department policy.

Discussion: 15 comments so far…

By DS

2/19/09 at 2:06 p.m.

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Wow! I live right next door and I heard shoots fired at 1112PM. I hope this neighborhood isn't going down hill.
By starrynite7

2/19/09 at 7:52 p.m.

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Wow! DS that would be scary to hear the gun shots! I don't think your neighborhood is going down. Domestic violence happens to people in all walks of life. No one is exempt from this kind of sadness. I am glad that the police stopped him from going after the woman and child. The man may have been distraught about losing his wife and young child.
By afveteran

2/19/09 at 8:24 p.m.

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Metro PD officers make life and death decisions every day and we the public are not placed in that situation at any time in our normal, every day lives. The woman and child are missing a husband and a father after this and we must all remember that. The shooting officers must live with it too, forever.
By drlea

2/20/09 at 12:07 a.m.

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Metro PD make tough decisions all the time... 12 shots fire, 3 hits, all to his back..any to his legs? his arms?... You tell me...
By rcknrllfreak

2/20/09 at 7:27 a.m.

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Police are taught to "shoot to kill". They don't try to just injure anymore. I mean, where's the fun in that?

It's funny that it's always 15 minutes of negotiations until it's killin' time.

For trained murders, cops are lousy shots too. Are they properly trained, or does the department just slap the weapon in their hand and say "Now go killin'!"
By Wolfdog

2/20/09 at 8:05 a.m.

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So much for shooting a person in the leg. Now a little girl is without a father.
By stevecan2

2/20/09 at 9:15 a.m.

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Unfortunately for Police, they are forced to decide who's life is more valuable. And that's what this comes down to. Would you rather have them not fired upon an armed man who rejected pleas to drop his weapons for 15 minutes and allowed him to kill the mother and daughter?
By pbud33

2/20/09 at 9:37 a.m.

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I don't care for the many corrupt and dirty officials, especially dirty cops. But automatically attacking police officers , without any contrary evidence, is very ignorant.

For all of the dirty cops, there are many more who are honest and upright. If that man made threats to harm his family, and they called 9-11 asking for help, then his "poor little daughter" is better off without him as a father. I can already see the comments if the officers had allowed him to enter the home and kill those inside.

Please think of the officer who has to live with taking the life, even if he was potentially protecting the lives of others.
By bamacjs

2/20/09 at 1:21 p.m.

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I understand that the officers did what they thought was best, but you also have to relieze you never hear the whole story from the media, so please dont make assumptions on this man, remeber he is someones son, and a husband and father to that family. Just remember there is more to the story than what we read. People's lives have been changed forever.
By Pammaw

2/20/09 at 2:01 p.m.

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Yes, I agree that this mans story is not fully being told by the media. The police should be ashamed of themselves for only allowing a 15 minute talk down from him and did the wife feel threatened for her safety or his? when she called the police. To have taken a young mans life over maybe depression is unjust and to shoot him many times to kill and not wound has left a small child without his father and a grieving family and Mother also.
By harske

2/20/09 at 2:03 p.m.

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I think the guy got exactly what he expected. Seems to me if you're sitting somewhere with a couple of guns, and a cop shows up and asks you to relinquish them, it's a pretty good idea to relinquish them. If you don't, bad things happen. That's just a part of the criminal experience.

While I sympathize with the little girl for having lost her dad, I agree with pbud33... if that's the decison he made under those circumstances, she's probably better off long term. And how many of these situations end with three people dead?

I say keep the peace, police. If that means taking down a guy brandishing weapons, then so be it. It's not my intention to diminish someone's life so matter-of-factly, but if you do bad things, bad things will happen. I agree that we never hear the total story, and it's easy to decide guilt in the media, but it seems pretty clear cut to me.

Having said all of that, my thoughts and prayers do go out to the family of the people involved. I hate to hear about any gun crimes. No one should ever die by a bullet.
By TXART

2/20/09 at 2:04 p.m.

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If a police officer tells you to stop and drop your weapon for 15 minutes and you don't do it, expect to be shot. As for shooting to wound, it's too difficult to score a hit and wounded men can shoot back. Officers are trained to aim for center of mass.

It seems every time there is a police shooting, the wise guys make comments about their lack of marksmanship. They have obviously never shot at anything while in danger. (I have - Vietnam, '69-70.) As far back as the Civil War, it was estimated that it took a man's weight in bullets for every kill. In Vietnam, it cost a million dollars for every enemy killed and we were shooting rifles and hurling artillery at them! A pistol is an inaccurate weapon, especially when you are under stress and in danger yourself.
By heaven62879

2/20/09 at 6:57 p.m.

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First and foremost I would like to say, that I fully believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. That being said I have a few of my own that I would like to share.

I am related to the man that was shot and killed. It is a tragic event that has caused a tidal wave of grief through my family.

DS-I cannot tell you how it pleases me to see that after all that is said and done the only thing you are worried about is your property value...by the way the mother and daughter are fine thanks for asking...oh you didnt because you are too worried about how your precious neighborhood is percieved.

I feel for the policeman who was forced to shoot him. He now has to live the rest of his life with this on his shoulders and I don't envy him that one bit. However, I don't believe that 15 minutes is a fair amount of time to "negotiate". Somebody who is sitting on their lawn brandishing two small weapons is obviously not in their right mind. What happened to shooting people with those bean bags? What happened to tasers?? They are used over here quite often. Unfortunately, we will never know the answers to these questions. Only one side of the story will ever be known. I'm sure that when his wife called 9-1-1 the last thing she expected was for her husband to be laying on the front lawn shot dead while she and her child watched from inside.

God Bless them both.
By CapoDiMasi

2/21/09 at 2:47 a.m.

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Yo DS no need to worry, I was in your neighborhood the other night, just enjoying some crack and fine wine, while urinating in someone's front yard, I thought to myself how nice it would be to live here.
By r3kon

2/27/09 at 1:31 a.m.

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that was my cusoin that was mess up for what hapen. you guys dont know the hole story so but out of it.