Metro Police officers and a crime scene analyst are shown near an officer-involved shooting in the northwest valley Thursday, March 31, 2016. Two people are reported dead and a suspect was shot and is in custody, police said. A Metro Police dog was also reported killed.
Published Monday, April 4, 2016 | 2:51 p.m.
Updated Monday, April 4, 2016 | 5 p.m.
Nicky, a Metro Police dog, was killed Thursday, March 31, 2016, during an officer-involved shooting. The same K-9 was stabbed multiple times the previous month after police responded to a disturbance call.
A man accused of killing two of his mother’s neighbors Thursday was left paralyzed after a shootout with officers, and a Metro Police dog was accidentally shot to death by one of the officers, authorities said today.
Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said the suspect, James Craig Simpson, 31, was “shouting things that don’t make sense” before the deadly shootings about noon Thursday in the garage of a house in the 9800 block of Fast Elk Street. Simpson killed Felecia Wimberly-Hughes, 47, and Brandon Hughes, 31, who entered the garage to help diffuse a confrontation between he and his mother, police said.
Minutes later, four Metro officers persuaded Simpson to drop his gun, but he picked it back up and engaged in a gun battle with police, McMahill said.
The four officers combined fired more than 20 rounds at Simpson, striking him multiple times, McMahill said. No officers were injured.
Simpson was left paralyzed and remains in critical but stable condition at University Medical Center, McMahill said.
The police dog, which was let loose to help stop Simpson, bit him and held on as Simpson ran from officers, McMahill said.
The dog was killed by a single shot fired by a Metro officer, McMahill said. Police have not determined which officer fired the shot, he said.
“This incident was highly charged, very dynamic and it touched a lot of people,” McMahill said. “The sense of safety we like to associate with our homes was shattered that day."
McMahill lauded the two slain residents, for “going to the aid of their neighbor,” and said the police dog died “doing what he loved to do and what (Metro) trained him to do.”
McMahill said Simpson, who faces counts of murder, attempted murder, kidnapping and discharging a gun, will also likely face more charges upon completion of a police investigation, which is ongoing.
Thursday’s officer-involved shooting was the fourth such incident in Metro’s jurisdiction this year.
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