Las Vegas police arrest man after officer-involved shooting

Las Vegas police said an officer shot at a man who drove his car toward the officer in the east valley late Monday night.

The incident happened in the 3900 block of La Cruz Court, near U.S. Highway 95 and East Charleston Boulevard.

Metropolitan Police Department officials said the suspect had minor injuries and was treated at the scene. No officers were hurt.

Capt. Shawn Andersen with Metro’s office of internal oversight and constitutional policing said police attempted to pull over an unregistered Honda Civic at about 11:15 p.m. near North Nellis Boulevard and East Bonanza Road. The car sped off westbound, and officers did not chase it.

Those same officers found the car near Del Amo Drive and North Sandhill Road a short time later, Andersen said. He said the car pulled into La Cruz Court, and officers turned on the overhead brights.

“As they did that, the suspect drove quickly out of the cul-de-sac and at the officers,” Andersen said.

He said an officer then fired his gun several times at the car.

Additional officers took the man, identified by police as 18-year-old Daniel Prichard, into custody at 89 Vallejo Avenue, said Sgt. Jeff Clark with Metro’s public information office.

Prichard was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on several charges, including assault with a deadly weapon, reckless driving, driving on a suspended, canceled or revoked license, and having an unregistered vehicle.

Andersen said only one officer fired shots, but he did not know how many shots the officer fired. The officer will be placed on administrative leave and will be identified later this week.

Prichard had what the captain called “superficial” injuries.

“Whether that was from broken glass or something inside the car, I don’t know,” Andersen said.

Police believe Prichard was the only person inside the Civic.

Neighbors were stirred from their homes as officers worked the scene. Melanie Flannery, who lives at the corner of Trabuco Drive and Sandhill, said she heard one police car driving on Sandhill just after 11 p.m. before hearing a second and then several more.

“They kept coming in droves,” Flannery said.

She guessed about 20 police cars eventually arrived. A helicopter circled overhead for about 10 minutes, Flannery said.

She said she had not seen anything comparable to the shooting in the neighborhood. However, she recalled an incident two years ago when a car jumped the sidewalk, hit her fence and kept going, prompting a police response. As she talked, she gestured toward her bowed-in, chain-link fence facing Sandhill.

“It’s a busy, busy street,” she said.

Flannery said she did not hear any gunshots.

Neither did Isaias Vilches, who was looking over his backyard wall across Sandhill from Flannery’s home.

Vilches said he had heard cars approaching in the neighborhood, and one seemed to be particularly loud. He compared the sound to cars drag racing, adding it “sounded like another car took off after them.”

This was the eighth shooting by Metro police this year.

Police had blocked off a section of the neighborhood between Stewart and Charleston as they investigated, but Sandhill reopened about 2:45 a.m. Officers continued investigating the area near La Cruz and Del Amo early Tuesday morning.

Police said they will not release any more information about the shooting until a news conference later this week.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.