Metro officers cleared in shooting of hostage-taker armed with knife

By Riley Snyder

Monday, June 24, 2013 | 12:53 p.m.

Two Metro Police officers involved in a 2012 shooting death of a Las Vegas man holding a hostage at a knifepoint were cleared Monday of any wrongdoing by the Clark County District Attorney’s Office.

Daniel Hathorne, 39, took a 65-year-old woman hostage with a 13-inch kitchen knife after breaking into an apartment from which he had been evicted apartment on the night of Nov. 1, 2012.

Metro officers Russell Ellsworth and Bradon Oris fired a total of seven shots at Hathorne after he ignored orders to drop the knife and release the woman.

District Attorenty Steve Wolfson said the officers were justified in using deadly force because Hathorne indicated that he planned to harm or kill the hostage.

“When (Hathorne) repeatedly refused to obey the officers’ commands to drop his weapon, the officers took the necessary action to protect the victim and themselves,” Wolfson said in a statement.

Hathorne’s girlfriend of eight years told officers that he had started using methamphetamine in 2011, making him paranoid. He had previously been arrested on counts of counterfeiting money and domestic violence, according to the DA’s report.

On the day of the shooting, Hathrone had been locked out of his apartment for non-payment but broke in and threatened to go on a killing spree when told to leave by the apartment manager, the report said.