Las Vegas police recount shooting of suspected kidnapper
Las Vegas police released more information Monday on the shooting of a suspected kidnapper.
Assistant Sheriff Jamie Prosser conducted a news conference at Metro headquarters.
Metropolitan Police Department Officer Jonathan Collingwood shot a man Friday morning who police said pointed a gun at someone in his SUV in the 4400 block of East Charleston Boulevard, near South Lamb Boulevard.
Prosser identified the man shot by police as 37-year-old Jeffrey Hair. She said he faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon, felony evading, resisting an officer with a deadly weapon and three counts of first-degree kidnapping.
A woman had texted Henderson police just after midnight Friday to report she had been kidnapped by a man.
Henderson police alerted Boulder City police after learning the vehicle was on U.S. Highway 95 near mile marker 47, according to Prosser. Boulder City police tried to stop Hair’s vehicle at U.S. 95 near mile marker 39, then Boulder City and Henderson police chased the vehicle to Searchlight, where it turned around and drove back toward the Las Vegas Valley.
Prosser said Metro took over the chase near Hollywood Boulevard and Owens Avenue around 2 a.m.
Inside the vehicle were Hair, two men and one woman who was in a “domestic relationship” with Hair, Prosser said.
Officers were able to forcibly stop the vehicle near Charleston and Lamb. Prosser said the two men ran out of the vehicle after it was stopped and Hair took the woman hostage and threatened to kill her.
SWAT and the Metro crisis negotiation team then responded to the standoff. Prosser said crisis negotiators tried to de-escalate the situation before Collingwood shot the man.
”The negotiators were talking with Hair, trying to de-escalate the situation,” Prosser said, “Hair continued to make threats that he was going to kill his hostage, at which time shortly thereafter Officer Collingwood took the shot.”
Prosser said Monday that Hair was in critical condition at University Medical Center. One hostage was treated for glass in his eye and the woman was treated for unrelated medical issues.
In August 2018, Collingwood fatally shot an 18-year-old man after an hourlong standoff that stemmed from a domestic incident. A Report On Use Of Force by the Clark County district attorney’s office determined that Collingwood’s actions were “reasonable and/or legally justified” in that shooting.
Collingwood was placed on routine paid leave after Friday’s shooting while the department investigates.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter. Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com.
