Police kill man after hourslong standoff in central Las Vegas
A Las Vegas police officer fatally shot a man Tuesday afternoon after an hourslong standoff near downtown Las Vegas.
Officers were called at 9:23 a.m. to the 300 block of South 11th Street, near Lewis Avenue, after a report of a person with a gun, according to Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Carlos Hank.
Hank said the man who was suspected to have a gun ran into a nearby abandoned building. While crisis negotiators and SWAT officers were attempting to talk to the man, Hank said, the man began firing rounds, striking nearby buildings around 2:30 p.m.
Hank said a SWAT officer fired one round, killing the man, when he pointed his gun at officers.
The man died at the scene.
No officers were injured, Hank said.
Tamanika Coates, who heard the shooting, said her neighbor Hakeem pulled a gun on someone and police were called. Hakeem, whose last name Coates did not know, ran into a nearby church.
Coates said she heard 20 shots and saw Hakeem’s sister crying in the street.
“It’s kind off terrifying,” Coates said. “So close to my house.”
In a separate shooting Tuesday involving Henderson police, officers “engaged” a suspect, who died at the scene on the 3900 block of East Charleston Boulevard.
Nearby schools closed
Clark County School District police spokesman Bryan Zink said the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, 315 S. Seventh St., was placed on lockdown as a precaution. Students were able to go home through what Zink described as a “controlled release” of students throughout the afternoon. He did not elaborate on exactly how the students were transported home from school.
Earlier Tuesday, Clark High School, 4291 Pennwood Ave., was put on lockdown as well because of a shooting in a nearby neighborhood. Parra said in that case a person was shot, suffering nonlife-threatening injuries, on the 4200 block of Pennwood at around 9:30 a.m. Zink said the lockdown at Clark was lifted around 10:45 a.m.
Zink said both lockdowns were put in place “out of an abundance of caution.”
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter. Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.