Shooting details revealed in standoff with disabled veteran

Las Vegas police on Friday released details showing that plans to safely resolve a standoff with a disabled veteran this week went awry, ending with an officer firing seven rounds into the unarmed man's car, killing him.

In a lengthy news release, the department did not explicitly say officer Jesus Arevalo's shooting was a mistake, and key questions remain unanswered.

But the department said officers at the scene of the Monday morning shooting had devised a way to get Stanley Gibson, 43, out of his unmoving Cadillac sedan safely. As Gibson's car was pinned in by two police cars, one officer was to shoot out a window with a beanbag shotgun, and another would use the broken window to douse the inside of the car with pepper spray.

Officers then decided to continue talking to Gibson through a loudspeaker. But when Gibson, whose wife said was confused and disoriented, stepped on the gas pedal of his car, causing the wheels to spin in place, officers decided to activate the plan.

A patrol officer fired the beanbag round into the passenger's side rear window. Almost immediately after, Arevalo, armed with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, fired seven times into the car.

Gibson was shot in the back of the head and died at the scene.

Police did not say why Arevalo felt he needed to shoot into the vehicle, who devised the plan or whether officers knew that Gibson was lost, confused and unarmed. The department's statement said that Arevalo and officer Malik Grego-Smith have not spoken to department homicide investigators and that "many facts are yet to be discovered."

The two officers with Sgt. Michael Hnatuick and Lt. David Dockendorf have all been placed on routine paid administrative leave.

The shooting, which was captured by neighbors on video camera, has been criticized inside and outside the department and sparked calls this week for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Metropolitan Police Department's statement reveals new details of the incident, starting at the moment that a person called police from the Alondra apartments near Rainbow Boulevard and Smoke Ranch Road.

The call, at 11:23 p.m. Sunday, came from a resident who said that two black men tried to break into the person's home and left in a white Cadillac. Officers went to the apartment, spoke to the caller and returned to the parking lot to fill out paperwork.

The extent of the attempted break-in is unclear. Gibson's wife told the Review-Journal that the couple recently had moved to a neighboring apartment complex and that Gibson, who was disabled and confused, had gone to the wrong apartments and called her for help.

A witness said he saw the man driving slowly through the complex with emergency flashers on before the fatal incident.

Police said officers then saw a white Cadillac pull into a parking space and turn off its lights and engine. Officers approached the vehicle, and Gibson turned the car on and backed up toward them. The officers moved out of the way, and the back of Gibson's car struck a patrol vehicle. A second officer quickly pulled a patrol car in front of the Cadillac, pinning it.

For the next 30 minutes, police spoke to Gibson through a loudspeaker, but he never responded or acknowledged them, police said. Gibson stopped and restarted the car several times. Three times Gibson stepped on the accelerator, causing the right rear tire to spin.

Other officers arrived on the scene, and police began devising the plan to remove Gibson from the car. Other officers would provide cover while the plan was carried out, police said.

Las Vegas police have shot and killed 12 people since February, a record for the agency in one year. On Thursday, Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said he welcomed an investigation by the Justice Department into how the department uses deadly force.

Under public scrutiny, the Metropolitan Police Department has released a greater amount of information about Gibson's death than it has in other recent shootings. Gillespie held an unusual news conference Monday afternoon promising to release more details of the incident, and Friday's news release was extraordinarily detailed. The release noted that as more information on the shooting becomes available, the department will release it to the public.

Police released few details into the Nov. 21 death of Bernard Pate, the department's 11th fatal shooting. Pate, 37, was shot in the back while running from officers. The department said gang crimes officers approached him for "acting suspiciously," chased him on foot and fired at him. A gun thought to be the suspect's was found next to Pate's body, police said.

Police held a news conference after the shooting revealing that Pate was a sex offender with an extensive criminal history, but they did not release more details into the incident.

Six days after Pate's death, the Review-Journal published a series of stories about Las Vegas police shootings, which detailed a department that was slow to weed out problem officers and slower still to adopt policies and training to protect both its officers and the public they serve.

Review-Journal reporter Mike Blasky contributed to this report. Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.