LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Las Vegas police sniper shot and killed a man who officers say wielded a rifle at an apartment complex near Nellis Air Force Base, fired into the air several times, and began shooting into an apartment that police thought was occupied, authorities said Wednesday.
Police didn’t immediately identify the 43-year-old man who died at about 5 a.m. and didn’t say if anyone was actually in the apartment the man shot into on the second floor of the Eagle Trace apartment complex.
Officer Larry Hadfield, a police spokesman, said the department would answer no more questions about the case until at least Friday.
Capt. Matt McCarthy said in a brief recorded video posted online that the rifle-toting gunman fired several times to keep patrol officers from evacuating neighbors and to get tactical teams to back off after police were called to the complex at Craig Road and Las Vegas Boulevard North around 12:30 a.m.
McCarthy said officers found the man dressed in “military-type clothing” and threatening suicide.
Negotiators tried to persuade the man to surrender. McCarthy said it wasn’t until the man began shooting into the apartment that the SWAT team sniper fired, striking the man once and killing him.
McCarthy said the incident was under departmental review. The name of the officer involved was being withheld for 48 hours according to department policy.
The shooting was the second involving Las Vegas police this year.
James A. Nelson, 21, was shot and wounded by a rookie patrol officer late Feb. 9, after police said he pulled a handgun and pointed it at another officer during a scuffle at an apartment complex in southeast Las Vegas. Police said they wanted to question Nelson following a report of a disturbance at a nearby residence.
Eight people died in 16 Las Vegas police officer-involved shootings in 2014, and eight were wounded, Hadfield said. All were armed when they were shot, he said.
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