Police say man killed in officer-involved shooting was suicidal
An armed man who was fatally shot by Henderson police last month told officers he was suicidal and wanted to force police to shoot him, a law enforcement official said Monday.
Henderson police provided the new information about the Sept. 21 shooting of Jose Oyuela-Palma, 49, of Las Vegas, via a police briefing video posted to YouTube.
Henderson police Deputy Chief Michael Denning said the events leading to Oyuela-Palma’s death started when Las Vegas police were called to the Santa Fe Apartments, 3955 E. Charleston Blvd., for a report of a man with a gun. A 911 caller told police that Oyuela-Palma was pointing a gun at nearby citizens from an apartment balcony.
“There’s a guy with a handgun in his apartment pointed it at me and other people in the parking lot of PepBoys,” a 911 caller could be heard telling dispatchers in audio played in the police video.
Denning said Henderson police SWAT officers were called to the scene through a mutual aid request from Las Vegas police.
“Officers observed Palma to be agitated as he was talking to himself, yelling unintelligibly, placing the firearm to his head, waving his hands in the air and pacing back and forth,” Denning said. “Palma told officers he wanted to commit suicide or force officers to shoot him.”
Two Henderson officers, previously identified as Logan Tillmon and Mark Street of the Henderson police operations support division, shot Oyuela-Palma “when they observed Palma take a shooting posture and begin to point the firearm at them and other perimeter officers,” Denning said.
Oyuela-Palma died at the scene. The Clark County coroner said he died of gunshot wounds to the chest. His death was ruled a homicide.
Police released body camera video clips Monday that briefly showed a man on a balcony, along with a clip that recorded the audio of a gunshot fired. A photo taken from a Las Vegas police helicopter showed Oyuela-Palma holding a gun on the balcony. The gun was also recovered from the scene, Denning said.
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.