Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Metro Police:

District Attorney: Police ‘acted reasonably and lawfully’ in shooting man who was ‘a threat to officers and citizens’

Officer-involved shooting

Paul Takahashi

Police have an area cordoned off near the Ross Dress for Less store at 2420 E. Desert Inn Road, where an officer-involved shooting occurred Monday afternoon, Oct. 29, 2012.

Metro shooting at Ross store

KSNV reports on a Metro Police shooting that left one man dead at a central Las Vegas Valley Ross store on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012.

Metro Police officers who fatally shot 52-year-old Ronald Morrison, a suspect in a shooting of a homeless man, “acted reasonably and lawfully,” the Clark County District Attorney’s Office has determined.

The officer-involved shooting happened Oct. 29, 2012, behind a Ross Dress For Less at 2420 E. Desert Inn Road, near Eastern Avenue. A Ross manager called police after a homeless man later identified as 28-year-old Jason Harnish suffered a gunshot wound to the hand.

When officers arrived, witnesses gave them Morrison’s description, and they located him on a loading dock.

Three officers — Michael Henry, Samantha Wimmer and Michele Iacullo — fired at Morrison after he walked toward them with his revolver drawn.

Morrison was struck twice and died from a gunshot wound to his upper left chest.

Authorities later determined that Morrison’s blood-alcohol concentration was quadruple the legal limit for driving at the time of the incident, a detail revealed during a police fatality public fact-finding review in August.

“Mr. Morrison was armed and dangerous,” District Attorney Steve Wolfson wrote in a news release. “He shot a homeless man, and then, when confronted by police officers, he pointed his weapon at them, too. Mr. Morrison was a threat to the officers and the citizens in the area.”

Wolfson came to his determination based on the case evidence available at this time. If new information emerges, the case could be re-examined, officials said.

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