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Sheriff Doug Gillespie addresses reporters during a news conference at Metro Police Headquarters on Monday, Dec. 12, 2011. Gillespie called the news conference after an officer shot and killed a man at a condominium complex in the northwest valley.
By Conor Shine (contact) 
Friday, Dec. 16, 2011 | 5:40 p.m.
Fatal police shooting
Details released by Metro Police in Monday’s shooting of Stanley Gibson, a 43-year-old Gulf War veteran, show Gibson was shot by an officer in a botched attempt to force him from his car using pepper spray and non-lethal beanbag rounds.
A statement issued by Metro on Friday detailed events leading up to the shooting, in which Gibson was killed after Metro officers responded to a burglary call at a condominium complex. Gibson was unarmed.
The shooting was the 18th officer-involved shooting in Metro’s jurisdiction this year and has prompted calls by some organizations for a federal investigation into how the department uses deadly force.
Early Monday morning, Gibson spent more than half an hour in his white Cadillac, boxed in by two patrol cars, while Metro officers repeatedly ordered him to get out of the vehicle, according to the statement.
Gibson persisted in trying to drive away, spinning his tires while failing to acknowledge officers and refusing to exit the vehicle, the statement said.
Police developed a plan to use a beanbag round fired from a shotgun to break a window on Gibson’s car and then fill the cabin with pepper spray to force him out, the statement said.
But when the beanbag round was fired, another officer fired seven live rounds from a rifle, striking and killing Gibson, the statement said.
Officer Jesus Arevalo, officer Malik Grego-Smith, Sgt. Michael Hnatuick and Lt. David Dockendorf were involved in the shooting, which happened near Smoke Ranch Road and Rainbow Boulevard, police said.
According to Stanley Gibson’s wife, Rhonda, Gibson was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and brain cancer.
Rhonda Gibson said her husband had been unable to get his medication to control his anxiety and that he called her in a state of confusion Sunday night, thinking he was home while he was at the neighboring condominium complex.
Sun archives
- Metro’s Gillespie supports federal probe into Las Vegas police shootings (12-15-2011)
- Police ID officers involved in shooting of Gulf War vet (12-14-2011)
- Police ID officers involved in shooting of Gulf War vet (12-142011)
- Sheriff says man shot by officer unarmed, ‘tough questions’ will be asked (12-12-2011)
Chunky says:
Tragic in so many ways.
That's what Chunky thinks!
"But when the beanbag round was fired, another officer fired seven live rounds from a rifle, striking and killing Gibson, the statement said."
Unarmed and trapped in his car. That's about right for Metro's latest victim.
How about naming which officer fired the rifle? And by what right did he decide Gibson's life was to be ended without due process of law?
"In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means . . . would bring terrible retribution." -- Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928), Justice Brandeis dissenting
They already have said that it was Jesus Arevalo who fired the rifle. I really hope he didn't choose to end his life or violate his rights. Sounds like he made a deadly mistake and wasn't "in on the plan". Bad police work, very bad.
Another case of the out of control police in the US, who only protect and serve the rich people.
It would be obvious to a normal person that something was wrong with this person.
Did they bother to call his wife to see if he had medical problems.
Don't give me crap that the police don't have this information. The government has every computer record on every person.
This will cost the tax payers millions of dollars for a wrongful death suit.
What will change this behavior is if the cost for these cases is DEDUCTED FROM THE PAY OF ALL THE POLICE!
First let me say police officers in this city have very difficult jobs. Las Vegas is home to the last vestige of "the wild, wild west," and I know police officers would like to go home to their families safe and sound at the end of a shift.
That said, there is something horribly wrong at Metro. Killing unarmed citizens, repeatedly, and every one ruled justified? Shooting suspects in the back? Shooting a West Point graduate as he left a Costco (complete with a magically disappearing surveillance video)? Shooting an unarmed man in his own bathroom? Beating a man for lawfully using his video camera? And now refusing even to participate in investigations?
Whether it's the result of poor training, poor hiring, or just that good old "eaten up with power" syndrome, the sad truth is that the poor judgment of a few officers is causing real damage to the entire force.
Something has to change. Quickly. Completely.
Mr. Gibson's life was only worth 30 minutes?
Metro had him in "protective psychiatric custody" the day before, but released him.
And then murdered him the next day....?
He was off his meds which he had been receiving from the VA....the anti-anxiety meds were "not going to be available to him" until December 20th?
Why the gap in time? Who at the VA cut off his meds?
Lots of questions that require specific answers.
"They already have said that it was Jesus Arevalo who fired the rifle."
johnmanrules -- thanx for that. I didn't check the links
"Indifference to personal liberty is but the precursor of the State's hostility to it." -- United States v. Penn, 647 F.2d 876 (9th Circuit, 1980), Judge Kennedy dissenting
What about the Ice Cream Lady that was Killed by Metro ? Why did Metro Award her Husband $750,000 Thousand Dollars of TAXPAYERS MONEY when the Killing was ruled JUSTIFIED ???
This keeps playing out the same way,year after year, police murder citizens and use citizen money to pay their way out. How many more times......
In conjunction with everything else that I've written on this incident, this is a pure and completely disgraceful incident. The officer who fired the live rounds should have already been arrested and jailed on charges of no less than manslaughter.
Makes me ashamed that I ever wore the badge of a peace officer, but am glad it wasn't Metro's. However, these type of aggressive officers who are reckless in carrying out their duties are not restricted to Metro. When in the hell are these sheriffs and agency leaders going to neutralize the outrageous conduct of these criminals with badges by holding them fully accountable to the laws they are obligated to enforce within their jurisdiction.
Bob635, information not Available.
The discrepancy in response (forced used) by the officers indicates a breakdown in communication among them, poor planning, insufficient guidelines as to what level of force is to be used in what circumstances, an inability to accurately assess the threat at hand by one or more, but not all officers on the scene, lack of training to be able distinguish the sound of a bean bag round vs gunfire... or some combination of each. A wild card I will add is possibly one officer's blatant disregard of the on-scene commanding officer's orders.
Regardless, there are some clear training issues that must be addressed. If some officers are unable to clearly identify the circumstances under which lethal force should be used, or lack sufficient individual judgment to make an accurate assessment of a threat, then he or she has no business carrying a gun and badge. Yes some situation require split second response, whereby no other course of action but to use deadly force is necessary. But clearly, this is not one of those cases. To be sure, I have personally witnessed less force used in more volatile situations, whereby the assailant was rendered powerless and taken into custody.
Do mistakes occur? Yes. The question is the frequency and circumstances under which they occur and how the police agency goes about ensuring the public that they will rectify the matter.
Here, if it can be clearly ascertained that lethal force was not warranted (which is what I am seeing), or that an officer having met periodic qualifying standards to use a deadly weapon should have responding one way, and one way only... then the proper policy for handling the failure should be implemented immediately. No cover up. No white wash. No PR campaign to smear the decedent's character. Metro simply needs to do the right thing. If Metro wants to restore whatever credibility remains, at some point it is going to have to come forward, without waiting until the last minute and start identifying the problems it has.
continued
continued from previous post,
The biggest problem I see is that Metro has, for too long, maintained a "we can do and have done no wrong" position in cases where deadly force has been used on citizens. And quite simply, the public just isn't buying it anymore. Is Metro now viewed as an agency with trigger happy poorly trained officers who are incapable of imparting solid judgment when faced with potentially volatile events? Or does it implement state-of-the-art, cutting edge, sound and accepted practices used by modern policing agencies to restore order, de-escalate situations and maintain the safety of all parties involved in the course of its policing activities? I fear that the later is not the case as is evidenced in this shooting. Further, the agency's "sweeping under the carpet" mentality, which has incidentally prompted changes to the Inquest system, which it is still fighting, has likely done more to perpetuate its deficiencies rather than to reconcile them. After all, how do you go about improving your methods if you deny any failure exists in using them? Does this not do irreparable damage to the reputations of many good officers who go out of their way daily to instill trust in the public they have taken an oath to protect? I think it does. The time has come for Metro to shed it's self serving paradigm and to restore faith in the public... the very public which grants it the authority to enforce law. Make no mistake about it. This is not merely a matter of law enforcement. It is a matter of public safety. A matter of the public.
you folks are voting these sheriffs in office right so speak at the polls before Obama and his boys take over and be the sheriff of sin city.
I may move back to vegas one day and run for office because some one is not on the peoples side there ,you folks pay the cops,you killing the hand thats feeding you,give me a break ,Ms Goodman somebody hello.I dont live in vegas but I wonder how metro would handle occupy protesters hah hah
Last year, the RJ ran a series on the LVMPD training academy. The police trainers teach that they are 'fighting a war'. Everyone should be able to see where Metro's aggressive mentality comes from. This has been going on for years and the leadership at Metro is responsible for who trains and what is trained.
It is really shocking that a rifle was used in the Gibson incident. This is probably the most serious issue of all. How many police departments would have approved the use of a bean bag to blow out a window and deployment of rifles by patrol officers? These were patrol officers-not tactical officers.
Was SWAT ever requested? Why couldn't police get closer using a shield for protection? Was the fire department on the scene to disable the car or break the window?
Heads will roll but, unfortunately, the won't belong to Gillespie or the Z's.
"What about the Ice Cream Lady that was Killed by Metro ?"
usecommonsense -- she was executed by a Henderson police officer.
"The police trainers teach that they are 'fighting a war'. Everyone should be able to see where Metro's aggressive mentality comes from."
Patriot1 -- excellent post. It's not limited to Metro -- it's everywhere. The Tuscon-area sheriff's raiders who executed that Iraqi war veteran last spring is more outrageous than what Metro's been doing here. Radley Balko has been writing for years about the militarization of our municipal police. Have a look -- "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America" @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_...
My long experience with government has brought me to the conclusion it is incapable of self-reform. Unless We the people make the changes, nothing will change. The fact that fascist Joe Arpaio has been voted in over and over again speaks to the herd mentality of the body politick, and that says nothing good about voters.
"Fear is the foundation of most governments." - John Adams "Thoughts on Government" (1776)
I'm with BChap regarding a charge of manslaughter. We need a little more out of these incidences than "Oops! Sorry, we messed up". There is no reason stated here or in other coverage that says there were mistaken orders or anything. This officer, with no apparent reason so far defined, opened up on a guy who was sitting in his car and had been for 30 minutes and done nothing more violent than spin his tires. We're not talking about 'up close and personal' with his handgun where the officer could claim he felt threatened. He stood off at a distance with a rifle and pumped seven rounds into the car. This is totally disgusting.
It comes to this "Choices". We all have them, we all make them. Obviously the best choice here is, do not put yourself, knowingly in harms way. Bad things happen, and that is actually what happened.
A good question would be was Officer Arevalo informed of the plan of using a bean bag shot? If so, then I believe he is guilty. If not, then the supervisor on the scene is guilty. This was unjustified and I am looking forward to exactly what happened. Although we may never know because of the union stating it will be a "no comment" type of inquest. I'm a fan of Metro but not a fan of this incident.
Blackwater, complete judicial immunity.
I forgot to add I'm not a fan of the Trevor Cole incident either and I can't believe that officer is still on the payroll. As far as the video "beating" of the d'bag...he said he didn't live at that residence and the police were investigating a burglary at his neighbors house. They had every right to question him but he decided to entrap the officer for his benefit of his 15 minutes of video fame.
There was a poster on another site who made some excellent comments regarding metro. I'm paraphrasing, but she said that when the department's training (at the academy)and culture changes to focus on professionalism above all else, and other officers stop tolerating the unprofessional, the losers will weed themselves out.
Are "Dirty Harry" films required material during training for metro officers? It might appear this way. "Shoot First and Ask Questions Later". This latest incident is certainly another nail in the coffin for the re-election of Mr Gillespie.
Heaven help us ALL should we not do what law officers demand of us.
And they say that the Mob no longer rules here in Vegas! (just a different mob today)
That feared Police State we keep hearing about in the future? It appears the future is here.
@acejoker..did you read the article? They were using non-lethal force when the lone officer decided to pump a few live rounds from his rifle into the suspect. I'm guessing he heard the shotgun blast and panicked not knowing it was just a bean bag shot. Just my guess. Also, are you saying someone having a diabetic episode should be shot if not following commands although there is no indication the person is armed?
There are many reasons an individual may not be able to follow commands. The person may be mentally incapacitated, experiencing some type of traumatic medical event such as a seizure, heart or panic attack; or as someone has suggested a diabetic event. He or she could also be experiencing extreme fright, fear, stress, confusion, or in the case of Mr Gibson, possibly a PTSD event. If he did indeed also have brain cancer, the potential for further cognitive impairment is far reaching.
Officers are supposed to be trained to identify individuals who may be physically or mentally compromised as such and to handle with caution. The goal being to subdue the individual, safely take him or her into custody and allow them to get whatever help is needed. Now if Mr Gibson had been pointing a gun at the officers, this would be a different story. The point being, the officers were not in a life threatening scenario from what I could see, and Mr Gibson's car was clearly not going anywhere. Having said that, it is difficult for me to entertain that this man was in a coherent state of mind. He was evidently confused per the reports indicating that he had been circling the parking lot of the apartment complex for a significant amount of time. Also, his attempt to enter an apartment that was not his, without any reported force, in light of the car circling activity, supports the idea that he was in some type of confused state. At that point, whatever he had been thinking or how he reacted to the situation must be considered with the backdrop that he had been put on a 24 hour hold the day before, which is typical for persons who are identified as possibly acutely mentally compromised. Now couple that with the fact that he had no access to needed medications in order to maintain mental stability, and what you have is mounting evidence that he was not in a competent state. Therefore, to suggest that "Mr Gibson should have done what he was told" ignores all of what I just mentioned. The assumption being... he had the capacity to know that he should have done something other than what he did. That line of thinking is tantamount to ordering someone to walk a straight line after just having been clobbered over the head with a stick.
Furthermore, I am having even more difficulty accepting the excuse that there had been a breakdown in communication as the bean bag rounds appeared to be coming from the same side of the car as the officer who fired the AR-15. Now I could be wrong on that and if someone else sees something differently from the video, I am open to their interpretation. However, what I appear to be leaning towards is a sympathetic fire response from a poorly trained officer who likely wasn't paying attention to orders, and perhaps had it in his mind that he was going to be firing rounds from his AR-15 before this thing was over with. And what pre-tell, warranted the AR-15?
Lastly, the fact that any of the officers has yet to issue a statement to his/their employer is a red flag. If you've done nothing wrong, then you've nothing to fear nor hide. If you've nothing to fear nor hide, them come forth with your statement(s) and set the record straight.
This is the person to contact and request an investigation of Metro. He is in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. They are the same group that investigated the New Orleans PD and the Maricopa County Sheriffs office.
The Honorable Thomas E. Perez
Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC 20530
Metro punks. Who is next? We know this wont stop.
I imagine it will be another crackhead...