Las Vegas police show dramatic video of apartment standoff, shooting

Body-worn camera footage released by Las Vegas police on Friday showed officers ushering a woman to safety after her husband shot at her, then exchanging gunfire with the man during an apartment standoff this week in the southern Las Vegas Valley.

The man, later identified by the Clark County coroner’s office as Demarko Henderson, 39, of Las Vegas, was found dead inside the apartment from a self-inflicted gunshot wound several hours after the initial gunfire on Tuesday morning, police said at a news briefing.

Henderson’s stepdaughter called 911 about 9:50 a.m. after her mother passed her a note asking for help, Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Christopher Darcy said. The daughter was worried for her mother, and told police that she “had recently been battered by her stepdad,” he said.

The woman told police her mother was still inside the apartment with her stepfather at the Milan Apartment Townhomes, 875 E. Silverado Ranch Blvd., and that Henderson was armed and threatening to kill her, Darcy said.

Police contacted the woman, who agreed to come outside of the apartment. Officers created a perimeter and went to escort the woman to safety, Darcy said.

But when the woman stepped out of the second-floor apartment, Henderson came out behind her and shot at his wife, Darcy said.

“The bullet impacted the railing right near her, so she’s lucky to be alive, in my opinion,” he said.

Once Henderson shot at his wife, officer Jody Cunningham returned fire. Body-worn camera footage released at the briefing showed officers yelling at the woman to run toward them.

Darcy said officers had a shield with them but were “risking their own safety” to keep the woman safe during “quite a dangerous situation.”

“At this point, the officers are pushing toward the female to try to rescue her, because he’s in the apartment armed with a firearm,” Darcy said as the body-worn camera footage played during the press conference. “They don’t know where the suspect is. He could be at any one of those windows.”

Once the woman was safe, police called the SWAT team and crisis negotiators to the scene. About 20 minutes after the initial shots, police heard more gunfire coming from the apartment.

Officer Manuel Papazian then saw Henderson at a window, where he “appeared to be pointing a firearm at officers,” and shot at Henderson, Darcy said.

A few minutes later, police saw smoke coming from Henderson’s apartment, the result of what investigators believe was a “small fire” started by Henderson, he said.

SWAT officers and crisis negotiators tried to speak with Henderson for “several hours” before entering the apartment. Police found Henderson in a bathroom with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene, Darcy said.

It was unclear where in the apartment Henderson started the fire, but the scene was burnt “throughout,” and the fire department “put a significant amount of water on it,” Darcy said.

Henderson was not struck by any bullets fired by police, Darcy said, and the woman and officers were unharmed.

Investigators believe Henderson fired “at least” seven shots, Darcy said. Cunningham, 46, fired three rounds and Papazian, 39, shot five times.

If Henderson had survived, he would have faced charges of attempted murder, kidnapping, coercion, and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, Darcy said.

Cunningham, who has been employed by Metro since 2018, and Papazian, who has been employed since 2014, were both placed on routine paid administrative leave while the department investigates the shooting. Both men are assigned to the Enterprise area command’s community policing division.

Tuesday marked the second time this year that police shot at someone, according to records maintained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Glenn Puit contributed to this report.