Man killed by Henderson police officer in July had meth in his system

High levels of drugs, including methamphetamine, were found in Bryan Bauer’s system after he was fatally shot by a Henderson police officer on July 4.

This and other details about the shooting were revealed Tuesday morning during a public fact-finding review at the Clark County Commission chambers.

The county holds a fact-finding review after the district attorney’s office has preliminarily deemed a police shooting justified. The hearings are meant to provide the public with the evidence that led to the decision and with an ombudsman to ask questions of investigators on its behalf.

Bauer, 36, of Las Vegas was shot eight times by officer Benson Harper on the morning of July 4 at the Hilton Garden Inn, 1340 W. Warm Springs Road. Harper did not testify at Tuesday’s hearing.

Harper was one of the seven SWAT members who were positioned outside Bauer’s hotel room. He and other officers responded to the hotel after Bauer’s girlfriend asked the front desk clerk to call 911, saying Bauer was having an anxiety attack, Detective Michael Condratovich said during the public review.

Bauer had been suffering from “severe paranoia” and was concerned people were following him and hiding in his house, Condratovich said.

“He had become so paranoid that he would stay at different hotels, to the point where he would park at one hotel and take a cab to the actual hotel he was staying in,” the detective testified.

These feelings manifested themselves on July 3, Condratovich said, and Bauer and his girlfriend checked into the Hilton Garden Inn at 2 a.m. on July 4.

Bauer’s paranoia immediately subsided, but then after a few hours, it returned and escalated to the point where he pointed a gun at the closet, thinking someone was hiding in it, Condratovich said.

Once set up outside the room, behind a shield, Harper could hear Bauer yelling and shooting rounds from inside his hotel room. Right before Bauer exited the hotel room, Harper overheard him say, “All right, screw this,” Condratovich said.

Bauer quickly exited the room with his head down and a gun in his right hand, Condratovich testified, and Harper fired at him.

Bauer was wounded on his right and left sides, his top left shoulder, his left upper arm and his chest. He died at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.

In an interview with Condratovich after the shooting, Harper said he fired his weapon because Bauer was actively shooting his weapon. In addition, he told Condratovich that Bauer was not looking to surrender, but rather, was looking for a fight.

Officer Forest Shields also fired at Bauer but did not wound him.

When asked by ombudsman Carl Arnold if the department requested an officer who was trained specifically to handle situations involving mental illness to respond to the scene, Condratovich said, “I don’t believe so.”

Responding to another question by Arnold, Condratovich said Shields had a non-lethal weapon in his possession — an L6 rifle — which shoots a solid sponge projectile, but Harper did not.

A toxicology screen indicated Bauer’s blood tested positive in high amounts for methamphetamine, amphetamine, alprazolam, methadone, oxycodone and oxymorphone.

Michelle French, a spokeswoman for the Henderson Police Department, said the July 4 incident was the only officer-involved shooting for the department in 2015.

Another fact-finding review will be held at 9 a.m. on June 1. It will focus on the fatal shooting of Demario Keyes.

Contact Natalie Bruzda at nbruzda@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3897. Find @NatalieBruzda on Twitter.