Metro IDs officers involved in fatal shooting in east Las Vegas
The Metropolitan Police Department has identified the two officers who shot and killed a man Friday morning after he pointed a handgun at police during a traffic stop.
Officers Francisco Rivera, 28, and Padilla Mills, 23, were involved in the shooting in an east Las Vegas neighborhood, according to the Police Department. Both have been with the Metro since May 2016 and are assigned to the community policing division in the department’s northeast area command.
Police said the officers were on their way to another call when they pulled over a vehicle for reckless driving about 4:45 a.m. in the 200 block of Madge Lane, near Charleston and Nellis boulevards. The man driving the vehicle immediately got out of the car, according to police Capt. Christopher Little of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Bureau of Internal Oversight and Constitutional Policing.
As he was getting out of the car, police said a handgun fell on the ground. Officers told the man to put his hands up and to stay away from the gun, but the suspect got down on his knees, grabbed the weapon and pointed it at the officers, Little said.
Rivera and Mills fired multiple rounds at the suspect, who was hospitalized but later died.
The two officers have been placed on routine paid administrative leave while the department reviews the deadly police use of force.
The Clark County coroner’s office will release the suspect’s name once his family has been notified.
This was Metro’s fifth shooting this year involving officers.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.