Henderson police provide details on shooting of man after car chase

The Henderson Police Department on Wednesday released additional information about a shooting last week in which an officer injured a man who led police on a car chase.

About 6:10 p.m. Thursday, officers were called to East Lake Mead Parkway and North Boulder Highway after a man reported he had escaped a kidnapping, Lt. John Plunkett said. Police located the car, but the driver, David Flores Jr., refused to pull over and led officers on a 3-mile chase to Galleria Drive and Boulder Highway, police said.

The car then crashed into another vehicle, Plunkett said. It was initially reported that the suspect, later identified as Flores, got out of the car while holding a gun and one officer shot him multiple times, but further investigation determined that he was unarmed when he exited the car, Plunkett said.

The handgun believed to be used in the kidnapping, and that police initially believed the suspect was holding when he exited the car, had been thrown from the car and found in the road “along the path of the pursuit,” Plunkett said.

Flores was hospitalized and is in stable condition and expected to survive. Plunkett said he has been charged with first degree kidnapping with a deadly weapon, robbery with a deadly weapon, attempted robbery with a deadly weapon, assault on a protected person with a deadly weapon, driver disobeying a peace officer or endangering other persons or property, possession of a firearm with an altered or removed serial number, and felon in possession of a firearm.

The officer involved in the shooting was previously named as officer Scott Alward, and Plunkett confirmed the officer is on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated.

Further details were not available, but Plunkett said more will be released next week.

Thursday’s shooting marked the fifth time this year that a Henderson police officer shot at someone, according to records maintained by the Review-Journal. At this time last year, department officers had been involved in four shootings.

Alward was previously placed on administrative leave in August 2019 after police said he shot an unarmed 15-year-old in the arm during an attempted robbery. Alward said he saw an “object” in the boy’s hand, but it was later determined not to be a deadly weapon, police said.

The outcome of Alward’s prior shooting investigation was not yet available Tuesday.

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Katelyn Newberg and Sabrina Schnur contributed to this report.