Police: Shoplifting suspect fatally stabbed by mall security

Henderson police said a fatal stabbing in a mall parking lot Sunday involved a private security officer who stabbed a shoplifting suspect after being threatened with a knife.

Henderson police said they were called to the 1300 block of West Sunset Road, the address for the Galleria at Sunset mall, at 5:40 p.m. Police said the call involved a confrontation between “an on-property security officer” and a 34-year-old man suspected of stealing merchandise from a store.

“The business’ 56-year-old security officer was alerted to the theft and attempted to retrieve the stolen merchandise from the male outside the business,” police said in a news release on Monday. “When confronted, the theft suspect brandished a knife.”

Police said “the officer then produced his own knife, which resulted in the theft suspect being stabbed.”

The stabbing victim was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died.

The Clark County coroner’s office will identify the man killed once his relatives have been notified. Neither the name of the security officer nor the store where he worked were released.

Police said they would not release additional information on the case in the short-term, citing an ongoing investigation “to determine whether criminal charges are forthcoming.”

In January 2017, a security guard working at the Jared jewelry store across the street from the mall at 1071 W. Sunset Road fatally shot an employee during an attempted robbery.

The guard, whom police never named, had opened fire on an attempted robber but missed, instead striking employee Kimberlee Kincaid-Hill, 57, in the chest. The coroner’s office ruled her death a homicide, and the would-be thief ran away empty-handed.

Henderson police at the time described the shooting as an accident and did not seek charges against the guard. In 2018, Kincaid-Hill’s estate filed a wrongful-death lawsuit. The case against the guard, identified as Michael Deshawn Lyons in court records, is scheduled for trial later this year.

Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.