Las Vegas police ID officers involved in man’s shooting death
Las Vegas police on Thursday released the names of four officers involved in the fatal shooting of an armed man Monday night near the Lloyd George U.S. Courthouse.
Police said officers shot Jorge Gomez, 25, around 11:22 p.m. The officers were stationed in front of the Foley Federal Building, across the street from the courthouse, when they encountered Gomez.
“Officers encountered a subject who was armed with multiple firearms and appeared to be wearing body armor,” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said in a briefing a few hours after the incident. “During the interaction the subject reached for a firearm, and the officers engaged him. The suspect was struck by gunfire and transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.”
The four officers involved in the shooting are Sgt. Ryan Fryman, 40, and officers Dan Emerton, 38, Vernon Ferguson, 36, and Andrew Locher, 53. All four are assigned to the police Professional Standards Division Organizational Development Bureau.
Fryman has been with the Metropolitan Police Department since 2007. Emerton and Ferguson have been on the force since 2006, and Locher has been an officer since 1995.
Gomez died of gunshot wounds, and his death was ruled a homicide, the Clark County coroner’s office said Thursday.
The shooting of Gomez took place around the same time that Las Vegas officer Shay Mikalonis, 29, was shot at the conclusion of a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Circus Circus.
Mikalonis was gravely wounded and remained hospitalized Thursday morning at University Medical Center in critical condition.
A 20-year-old Las Vegas man, Edgar Samaniego, faces attempted murder and other charges in the shooting of the officer.
Review-Journal staff Sabrina Schnur contributed to this report. Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.