4 Las Vegas officers involved in shooting near downtown

Four Las Vegas officers shot at an armed man in a neighborhood north of downtown Tuesday afternoon, police said.

The man was taken to University Medical Center in critical condition after the shooting outside a home in the 500 block of North Ninth Street, just south of East Bonanza Road, Metropolitan Police Department Capt. Kelly McMahill said. No officers were injured.

The police shooting was the department’s third since Friday.

In all three shootings, police encountered “very dangerous” and armed individuals, and guns were pointed at police in two of the shootings, McMahill said.

“We’re a very, very well-trained organization, so we’re pretty much prepared for instances like this,” McMahill said. “But it does take its toll on the officers as well as the leadership.”

Before Tuesday’s shooting, the man’s brother initially called police about 2:45 p.m. to report that the man was chasing their father with a gun, McMahill said. The man was still armed as officers pulled up to the front of the house, she said.

Police told him multiple times to drop the weapon, McMahill said.

“One officer can then be heard coming over the radio saying he’s pointing the weapon in the officer’s direction, at which point officers fired rounds toward the suspect,” McMahill said.

At the scene, police found a revolver matching the brother’s description of the gun. It wasn’t clear whether the man, 37, fired the revolver, police said.

Robert Klaus, who lives on a nearby street, said he heard 12 to 14 gunshots Tuesday afternoon but did not see the shooting.

Klaus said an older man lives at the home with his Chihuahuas, and he said police have been called to the house in the past regarding the man’s son.

Metro hadn’t been to the residence in the past 90 days, McMahill said, although she wasn’t sure whether police had been there before then.

Metro will release the four officers’ identities 48 hours after the shooting and additional details within 72 hours, per department protocol.

On Friday night, Las Vegas police shot and killed a man they accused of robbing the poker cage at Bellagio that night and previously in 2017. The 49-year-old man, Michael Charles Cohen, shot an officer in the chest, but the gunshot was a glancing blow and the officer was wearing a bulletproof vest. The officer wasn’t seriously injured.

And on Saturday night, a Metro officer shot another armed robbery suspect in the southeast valley after police said the man reached for a gun holstered on his hip. The man suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.