Las Vegas officer told woman to drop shovel before shooting her —VIDEO

Las Vegas Review-Journal

7 years ago

A Metropolitan Police Department vehicle is parked not far from the scene of an officer-involved shooting Saturday night on Big Sur Drive in the east Las Vegas Valley. (Mike Shoro/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Metropolitan Police Department officers talk with one another at a location not far from the scene of an officer-involved shooting Saturday night on Big Sur Drive in the east Las Vegas Valley. (Mike Shoro/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

LVMPD’s Assistant Sheriff Brett Zimmerman briefs the media on the department’s sixth officer-involved shooting of the year at LVMPD headquarters in Las Vegas, Tuesday, May 15, 2018. Madelyn Reese/Las Vegas Review-Journal

Las Vegas police officer Ondre Wills told a shovel-wielding woman to drop the item for more than a minute before he shot her seven times Saturday night, according to law enforcement officials and body camera footage.

Police were called just before 10:15 p.m. to 3437 Big Sur Drive, near Nellis Boulevard and Desert Inn Road, after receiving of a report of a woman threatening people with a broom and a skillet. Another caller said she hit a vehicle with a shovel, police said.

When Wills arrived, he drew his gun and saw Sommer Richards, 34, holding a shovel. The Metropolitan Police Department officer then got between Richards and two people who had confronted her. Richards had swung the shovel at the couple before the officer arrived, police said.

“She’s screaming right now,” Wills says into his radio, adding that Richards was mentally ill.

While Wills repeatedly told Richards to drop the shovel, one of the people behind the officer had moved toward the sidewalk. In body camera footage provided by police Tuesday, Wills told Richards four times over about 30 seconds that he would shoot her if she took another step.

When Richards started to walk toward the sidewalk from the middle of the street at 10:21 p.m., Wills fired seven rounds at her, striking her each time, police said. The footage stops after the first shot.

When another officer arrived and tried to apply a tourniquet, Richards bit the officer on the hand, police said.

Richards was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center with gunshot wounds to her arm, leg and abdomen. She remained in serious condition Tuesday.

She was booked in absentia into the Clark County Detention Center and faces counts of assault with a deadly weapon, tampering with a motor vehicle and battery on a protected person, police said.

Wills, 23, is on paid leave while police review the shooting. Saturday’s police shooting was Metro’s sixth of the year.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.