Police: Man who exchanged gunfire with officer was drunk, hallucinating

A man who exchanged gunfire with a Las Vegas officer Saturday had been intoxicated and hallucinating after days of drinking, his wife told police.

Assistant Sheriff Andrew Walsh shared the detail Tuesday afternoon during a Metropolitan Police Department news conference on the shooting. The wife had called 911 on her husband about 4:40 a.m. Saturday, and when officers arrived, she and her teenage son exited their home on the 6200 block of Windfresh Drive, Walsh said.

The woman told police that the man, Sonjeev Singh, believed “someone was coming to his residence to shoot him” and said the 49-year-old had access to multiple guns, Walsh said. Arriving officers could hear gunfire inside the house, so a SWAT team was called in.

Officer Michael Graca, 30, and another officer were positioned behind a parked car when Walsh said Singh, armed with a shotgun and a handgun, walked out onto the home’s second-floor balcony and fired one shot at officers. Graca fired one round back. Singh then went back inside.

Video footage from the scene played during the news conference showed Singh later reemerging onto the balcony at 6:56 a.m. with a shotgun, then retreating back inside. A couple minutes later, Walsh said Singh walked out of the home’s front door, put a shotgun on the front lawn, then retreated inside again.

At about 7 a.m., Singh jumped the back wall into a neighboring yard, where he was arrested without incident, Walsh said.

Singh is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center on two counts of attempted murder, two counts of attempted murder on a first responder and six counts of shooting at or into an occupied vehicle or structure, court records show. He has a court hearing scheduled for June 8.

Walsh said Singh suffered a minor wound to his upper right arm, but Walsh was unsure if it was a graze wound from the officer’s round or if Singh had hurt his arm while hopping the wall.

Graca has been with the department since 2018. He is assigned to the Summerlin patrol area and was placed on routine paid administrative leave while the matter is reviewed.

Saturday’s shooting marked the fifth time Metro officers have opened fire this year, and the second police shooting where no one was killed, according to records maintained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.