Wounded Las Vegas officer’s dad stunned by turnout at fundraiser

“This city — it is overwhelming,” Guy Mikalonis said, looking at the crowd forming. “It’s amazing.”

He choked back tears as he tried to express thanks to Southern Nevadans turning up at the “Shay Day” fundraiser Thursday morning in the Sahara West Urgent Care parking lot, 6125 W. Sahara Ave., near Jones Boulevard.

“I can’t even put it into words,” Guy Mikalonis said.

He said his son told him he was going to help protect the Strip on June 1 when he was shot in front of Circus Circus at the conclusion of a Black Lives Matter protest.

The elder Mikalonis spoke as hundreds of locals drove through the fundraiser site, donating cash, buying T-shirts and signing a banner to show support for the officer, who remained in critical condition at University Medical Center

“I was an ironworker, and I helped build a lot of buildings,” Guy Mikalonis said. “The night before (he was shot) he goes, ‘Dad, I know you worked really hard on these buildings (on the Strip). I’m not going to let anybody destroy them. You worked too hard.’ ”

‘Just doing his job’

Shay’s uncle, Frank Mikalonis of Washington, D.C., who also was at the event, described his nephew as “genuinely a soft-spoken, sweet kid.”

“He’s very talented, athletic, self-taught to play guitar,” Frank Mikalonis said. “An awesome dancer … country line dance, he’s really good at. He was just doing his job.”

One of Shay Mikalonis’ proudest moments, his father and uncle said, was his response to the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting on the Strip when he’d been on the job for just a month.

“He was one of the first ones on the scene because he was in the area,” Frank Mikalonis said.

“(After) the first month on the job, he was in the Mandalay Bay lobby, and he saw the carnage,” Frank Mikalonis said. “That’s tough.”

Frank Mikalonis said his nephew became a police officer because “it was about helping people.”

Shay’s stepfather, Patrick Neville, said the fundraiser turnout and continual support from the community have left him and Shay’s mother, Sharon Neville, “stunned, shocked.”

“You see an event like this, and you know this is really a community,” Patrick Neville said. “As a family, it means a lot to us. It keeps people motivated, moving forward because we all know everyone is here to support Shay.”

Outpouring of support

Shaleen Wilkerson, who came to the fundraiser, said she was brought to tears by the tragedy.

“I was just really crushed by what happened to him, heartbroken,” Wilkerson said. “I just can’t imagine a world without police. They have such a unique job.”

Hudson Munson, 9, showed up with his brothers, Ashton and Garrison, to express their support.

“We love you, Shay,” Hudson said.

Jeff Halverson and fellow members of the Las Vegas Fire Department stopped to make individual donations and to drop off a donation from the Vegas Fire & Rescue Charitable Association.

“The Fire Department and the Police Department, we have a really good, tight bond,” Halverson said. “We run with them every day. To see what happened to Shay is just a tragedy. Police are important in our community. They put their lives on the line every day.”

Ferdinand Akoh works at Sahara West Urgent Care, where the fundraiser was held, and he came out to the parking lot to offer support to those gathered.

“We are all out there in peaceful protests. We’ve heard the message,” Akoh said. “We are a community. Everybody here belongs to this community. Things might have happened that we do not like, but we need to come together as a community to start this healing process. And I believe this opportunity is one of the best places to start.”

Long-term care

“Shay Day” was organized by the Injured Police Officers Fund. All proceeds will go to the Mikalonis family and to medical expenses.

Authorities said Mikalonis has undergone two surgeries, one to remove a bullet from his neck and another to repair his shattered jaw. His family said in a statement that he might be on a ventilator for the rest of his life, but there have been positive developments in his condition in recent days.

“I do know that, based on what we are seeing right now and the statement the family put out, I definitely see long-term care for him ahead,” said Las Vegas police Lt. Erik Lloyd of the Officers Fund. “It is obvious he is not going to be out of the hospital any day soon. He still is going to need to go and have some type of rehabilitation.”

But Lloyd said the family informed him, “He does have eye movement. He is awake. To them, even though he’s got the ventilator, it seems he does recognize them. That is very positive.”

The 20-year-old shooting suspect, Edgar Samaniego, told police after his arrest that he fired the shot that struck Mikalonis but said he was trying to scare protesters into leaving and did not know police were present, according to his arrest report. He faces attempted murder and other charges in the shooting.

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