No officers charged in fatal shooting of man with sword

The 40-year-old man whom police fatally shot in May 2020 after he charged at officers with a sword had a history of mental health crises that prompted police responses, officials said Monday.

Metropolitan Police Department detective Trevor Alsup, who was in charge of the department’s investigation, answered questions about the death of Justin Charland during a fact-finding review Monday at the Clark County Government Center. The hearings, which the county adopted in 2013, are held when the county district attorney’s office makes a preliminary decision not to pursue criminal charges after a deadly police shooting or in-custody death.

Police shot Charland on May 5, 2020, after a woman in his apartment complex on the 3000 block of Sandhill Road called 911 at 10:35 a.m. to report a man talking and yelling at himself. She told police that the man was prior military and had an unknown mental illness.

Alsup on Monday did not disclose any specific diagnosis. But Leslie and Joe Oakley, Charland’s paternal aunt and uncle, previously told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Charland served in the Army for two years before he was honorably discharged and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Police used previous call history to identify Charland around 10:43 a.m., Alsup said. By 11:11 a.m., officers Daphna Maman and Vincen Segura had responded.

Segura’s body camera footage showed that Charland was standing at the top of a flight of stairs within the apartment complex when he and Maman arrived, and that Charland was yelling at a man walking by while swinging a sword. Segura repeatedly asked Charland why he was upset.

Within two minutes, Maman reported that Charland had a sword and was irate, Alsup said. A minute later, she requested additional police and medical units.

Body camera footage showed Charland walk down the stairs toward the officers before charging at them with the sword held out in front of him, yelling, “Run.”

At 11:15 a.m., Segura fired three shots at Charland, who was about 9 feet away, Alsup said. Body camera footage then showed Charland drop to the ground and sit on his knees with his hands behind his head.

“Justin, get on your stomach,” Segura could be heard saying. “I want to get you help.”

Charland dropped to his stomach and groaned while Segura handcuffed him, the footage showed. Maman reported that Charland was in custody at 11:16 a.m.

Had he survived, Charland would have faced charges of assault with a deadly weapon on a protected person and resisting with a deadly weapon, Alsup said. Court records show that he had previous charges of battery on a police officer or school employee and resisting a public officer without a weapon in 2003, and obstructing a public officer in 2008.

Contact Alexis Ford at aford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexisdford on Twitter.