Off-duty officer in attempted vet office robbery identified

Metropolitan Police Department Detective Lance Spiotto, 48, from the homicide and sexual assault unit, was with his pet in the lobby of the West Flamingo Animal Hospital, 5445 W. Flamingo Road, at about 2:30 p.m. Monday when a man with a black semi-automatic handgun tried to rob the animal hospital.

Spiotto, off-duty but armed, tried to intervene. After a nearly 40-second fight with the suspect, which Metro Capt. John McGrath described Monday night as a “violent struggle,” the officer shot twice at the suspect.

Spiotto was placed on paid leave while the department investigates the incident.

Police jailed Ronald Hassan Clark, 46, on several charges at 10 p.m. Tuesday. He was arrested Monday night after a two-hour barricade situation at an apartment within 2 miles of the animal hospital.

Clark was booked into Clark County Detention Center on three counts of assault with a deadly weapon along with counts of robbery, robbery with an enhanced deadly weapon, burglary while possessing a gun, shooting a gun within a prohibited structure or vehicle and possessing a gun by a prohibited person. Police also booked Clark on an unrelated previous misdemeanor charge.

Last year, Clark was sentenced to 21 days in jail on a conspiracy charge as part of plea agreement in which a charge of drug possession with the intent to sell was dropped, court records show. In 2006, Clark was sentenced to serve two years on probation for a drug charge, and in 2009, Clark was sentenced to one to three years in prison on a felony burglary charge.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter. Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.