Man shot by police charged at officers with baton, footage shows
Video released Monday showed a 46-year-old man charging at police with a baton before he was shot by two officers in the east Las Vegas Valley late last week.
The man, identified as Luis Sanchez, remained in critical condition, authorities said at a news conference.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, the Metropolitan Police Department received a call that a man was swinging a bat at pedestrians and vehicles in the 1500 block of Cobb Lane in the east Las Vegas Valley.
When officers responded to the scene, they located a man matching the description who was standing in the middle of the roadway, wrapped in a blanket, Metro Assistant Sheriff Jamie Prosser said in a briefing on Monday.
Officers told Sanchez to drop the baton, which was studded, according to police.
Sanchez used the baton to break into a vacant laundromat in the 1500 block of North Eastern Avenue, smashing the front window, Prosser said. He then left and smashed the glass door of another business. In body camera footage, a police officer can be heard saying “there’s people in there.”
Prosser said that Sanchez was told that if he did not drop his weapon, he would be hit with a bean bag round, which is a less-lethal round fired from a shotgun.
“We deploy them to try and deescalate the situation,” Prosser said. “The low-lethal round is used to cause pain, cause them to drop the weapon, to obey the commands that are given. Obviously, in this case, it didn’t work.”
When Sanchez was hit by the bean bag round, he turned his attention towards officers and moved towards them, Prosser said. Body camera footage showed Sanchez running towards officers.
As Sanchez “continued to close the distance,” Prosser said, Officers Justin Lee, 38, and Victor Robinson, 36, fired their guns simultaneously, hitting Sanchez, who fell to the ground.
Lee fired three rounds and Robinson fired five rounds, police said.
After being shot, the man pulled out a knife and tried to stand up. Officers fired two more less-lethal rounds, causing him to fall back to the ground.
Sanchez was taken to University Medical Center and remains in critical condition, Prosser said.
The knife Sanchez was found with appeared to have blood on it, but Prosser said it’s not known whether the blood was there from before the shooting.
Sanchez is facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon on a protected person, burglary and resisting a peace officer with a deadly weapon.
Sanchez has previously had interactions with the police, Prosser said without providing details. He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning.
Contact Estelle Atkinson at eatkinson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @estellelilym on X and @estelleatkinson.bsky.social on Bluesky.