Metro detectives honored for helping uncover potential terror plot
Twenty-two Las Vegas police officers and detectives were honored Thursday afternoon for work that helped uncover a potential terrorism plot at a northwest valley home in September 2020.
“Detectives had reason to believe that Lacy Walthour was in the process and acquiring weapons and material for use in carrying out an ideologically motivated mass casualty attack,” a recently released arrest report said.
The Metropolitan Police Department officers — and a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent — were among 94 employees and four citizens recognized at a ceremony for distinguishing themselves through community, exemplary, meritorious or lifesaving service in 11 separate cases.
The previously unreported terrorism investigation sprang from a response by Metro officers to 3936 N. Cobble Creek Court just before 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 22, 2020, in response to reports of a shooting and potential burglary. Upon arrival, they encountered 27-year-old Walthour, who provided conflicting accounts of what happened to 911 dispatchers and the officers, according to police reports and court records.
He first told 911 dispatchers that he saw a man with a mask breaking into his car, according to the arrest report. Walthour said the man fired a gun at him so he shot back several times, and the man ran away.
But after his call was cut short, he called 911 again and said the man had tried to break into his home. Asked why he had previously said the man tried to break into his car, he changed his story to say that it was his car. He also told the dispatcher that he saw the man on camera but later said his camera wasn’t recording, the report said.
Officers found seven shell casings in front of Walthour’s home but didn’t find any near the street to corroborate his story. They also found six bullet impact marks on a house across the street and one on a car parked in the driveway.
According to the report, officers obtained a search warrant for Walthour’s home and found a hand-painted portrait of Osama bin Laden with the phrase “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” in Arabic across the top, gun parts, a 3D printer, 3D-printed gun parts, body armor, riot shields and a computer with a YouTube video titled “Hebrew Israelites No White People In Heaven” on the screen in the garage.
Metro’s counterterrorism section was called in to assist, and detectives found what they identified as homemade explosive devices throughout the garage, designed to detonate if stepped on.
Sgt. Joseph Edens, one of the officers honored, said the scene inside Walthour’s garage was like nothing he had seen before, outside of his time stationed in Iraq.
“When we walked into the suspect’s house garage, immediately to the left, there was a hand-painted portrait of Osama bin Laden,” Edens said. “This is the first time I saw a shrine like that and a weapon-making manufacturing operations that we encountered.”
Edens said the agency determined that Walthour was actively involved in the protests that took the nation by storm in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd, and Metro believed he may have been planning an attack at one of the protests.
“If this person is willing to go at that length, we can’t even imagine what he would have tried to do to a citizen or some officer in a protest,” Edens said. “Even if this guy targeted one of us, if he was anti-police, which we believe he was, if he tried to attack one of us he could just as easily miss and hit an innocent citizen, so it’s equally as important to protect officers and stop this guy from hurting any citizens as well.”
Court records show that Walthour was indicted by a grand jury on Oct. 9, 2020, and remains in custody at the Clark County Detention Center on one count of attempted murder with a deadly weapon; six counts of firing a gun at or into an occupied structure; one count of firing a gun at or into an occupied vehicle; one count of owning or possessing a gun as a prohibited person; one count of making or possessing an explosive or incendiary device; one count of possessing an explosive or incendiary device in or near a public or private area and 15 counts of possessing a component of an explosive or incendiary device with the intent to make an explosive or incendiary device.
Jail records show that he is being held on $1 million bail. It was not immediately clear whether Walthour had entered a plea to the charges.
His next court appearance is scheduled for Monday morning.
Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.