Police hold public review of officer-involved shooting at Jean casino
County officials held a public review Friday of the January officer-involved shooting death of Paul Carr Palmer III at a Jean resort. Fact-finding reviews are held after the Clark County district attorney’s office has preliminarily deemed a shooting justified.
Metropolitan Police officer Peter Bicsanszky responded to the Gold Strike hotel, about 30 miles south of Las Vegas, just after 9:30 a.m. Jan. 21 after police received numerous reports of a nude man in the pool area.
When resort security tried to confront the man, he chased after them while brandishing a folding pocket knife, police have said.
Police confronted the man, but Palmer did not comply with the Bicsanszky’s commands and charged at him while holding the knife over his head.
Bicsanszky, 42, hit him with three beanbag rounds fired from a shotgun, but Palmer was not deterred. The officer then fired two rounds from his sidearm, one of which hit Palmer in the chest.
Palmer, 50, of Sedona, Arizona, had cut himself multiple times before the officer arrived. Metro said he had been living out of his car in the area and had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He was not taking medication and had tried to kill himself in the past, police said.
Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.