Dramatic details emerge in Tuesday shootout with Las Vegas police

On Tuesday morning, bullets sprayed down a south valley street as a hostage fled for his life.

“Help!” he screamed, running as rounds struck the pavement and skipped near his feet, according to Metropolitan Police Department body camera footage released Thursday.

Officers at the scene ordered the frightened man running toward them to put his hands up, then get down. Together, he and the officers took cover behind patrol cars and nearby brick walls as the bullets continued.

One officer, Paolo De Leon, 35, returned fire. The nine-year Metro veteran shot six rounds. No one was injured.

Police initially had been called about 10 a.m. to the small, recently developed community on Coral Cactus Court, near Decatur Boulevard and Robindale Road, for a domestic disturbance.

Edison Somera, 37, had held his girlfriend of 21 years at gunpoint inside her home, she later told police. Somera came over uninvited, then drew his weapon soon after the woman told him she was done, that “the relationship wasn’t going to work,” according to an arrest report.

The woman, Charlene Ganigan, escaped and called 911 from a neighbor’s house only after the couple’s 19-year-old son charged at Somera, allowing her to flee. A few minutes later, as Somera had his back turned to his son, the son and the couple’s two other children also made their escape.

Ganigan had applied for a protective order against her estranged ex-boyfriend in November. The order had been approved and served, court documents show.

Once his family members fled, Somera made his way to his neighbor’s backyard, where the homeowner was working upstairs and the homeowner’s friend was watching TV downstairs.

Holding a semi-automatic rifle, Somera pounded on the back, sliding-glass door. The friend watching TV walked over to see what was happening, then refused to open the door. Somera screamed.

“Fearing he would be shot if he didn’t comply, (the friend) unlocked the door and Somera entered the house,” according to the arrest report. “Somera was upset and said something about his (girlfriend) and children and police helicopters overhead.”

Hearing the commotion downstairs, the homeowner started down his steps, then realized Somera was in his living room, armed.

The homeowner “tried to reason with Somera in an attempt to calm him down,” but it didn’t work, according to the report. Somera soon told the homeowner that “if he didn’t shut up he would be shot.”

Minutes later, Somera ordered the men upstairs. It was then that the homeowner’s friend blocked Somera’s view so the homeowner could unlock the front door and escape. Running down the street, Somera shot at the homeowner and responding officers several times.

For the next five hours, Somera held the homeowner’s friend hostage, police said Thursday. The man tried to calm Somera down as Somera threatened to kill him, saying it was “going to be his last day” and to “get ready,” according to the arrest report.

At one point, Somera fired a handful of rounds into his girlfriend’s home for unknown reasons, and officers nearby heard the series of shots go off. Somera’s family had not returned since they intially fled and were not injured.

Metro hostage negotiators spoke with Somera, eventually convincing him to surrender about 3:30 p.m. The homeowner’s friend who had been held hostage was unharmed.

Somera was taken into custody shortly after the incident. He is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center, where he faces seven counts of assault with a deadly weapon, three counts of second-degree kidnapping with a deadly weapon, one count of burglary while in possession of a gun and one count of discharging a gun within an occupied structure.

His 72-hour hearing is scheduled for Friday morning.

ODe Leon, the officer who returned fire during the ordeal, was placed on routine paid administrative leave pending an investigation into the incident.

Review-Journal reporter Wesley Juhl contributed. Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @rachelacrosby on Twitter.

Undersheriff Kevin McMahill plays bodycam footage from Tuesday's standoff pic.twitter.com/HM8W25WcRi

— Wesley Juhl (@WesJuhl) December 15, 2016