Las Vegas police shoot, kill man after domestic dispute

Las Vegas police shot and killed a 35-year-old man Friday morning after a domestic dispute in the northeast valley.

The fatal confrontation unfolded about 7:30 a.m. when a neighbor reported a disturbance at 2917 Theresa Ave., near Washington Avenue and Mojave Road.

Two officers arrived and saw a man pinning a woman against a bedroom wall and wielding scissors in a threatening manner, police said.

The man refused the officers' commands to drop the scissors and surrender.

Officers twice tried to incapacitate the man with a Taser but the attempts failed, police said. The man tussled with officers, gaining control of one officer's stun gun and trying to grab the other, police said.

One officer shot him several times, police said. He was given medical aid but died at the scene.

The officer who fired the fatal shots has been put on paid administrative leave, which is routine when an officer fires a weapon in the line of duty.

The incident will join the list of officer-involved killings that will be reviewed under the revamped coroner's inquest system. The incident was the sixth fatal officer-involved shooting this year.

Authorities did not release the name of the man who was killed .

Neighbors said police were called to a number of domestic disturbances at the home in the past six months.

"They had a lot of problems before -- fights," said Frank Moreno, who lives across the street from the couple.

Records show Ines and Socorro Castillo own the property. A few longtime neighbors said they were the deceased man's parents.

The deceased man, along with a spouse and two or three children, moved in with the parents a while back after he was unable to find work in construction and carpet laying, said Carlos Lemos, a next-door neighbor and 30-year resident of the neighborhood.

He suspects the man's prolonged unemployment and inability to provide for his family caused tensions to escalate.

"He wasn't a bad guy, just out of work," Lemos said. "There's a lot of stress in all of this. It grew into the violence."

Lemos said he was friendly with the parents, who lived next door to him for 20 years. The son was always cordial and never disrespected him, he said.

Disturbances at home

Moreno said he never saw the couple fight. The spats he witnessed that drew police were always between the man and some other person, sometimes his brother, Moreno said.

But one neighbor, who wouldn't give her name, said the couple's squabbling was at the center of some disturbances. Within the past month she spotted multiple police cars at the house and heard a woman standing outside screaming, she said.

Police records show officers were called to the home May 10 over a "family disturbance."

He 'seemed a little off'

Moreno said he was one of the last people to see the man alive.

At about 7 a.m., Moreno stepped out the door and found his neighbor examining a bike in Moreno's front yard. The bike, which belonged to Moreno's son, was similar to one the man's son owned. The man was trying to determine if his son left his bike in Moreno's yard.

Moreno assured him that he had the wrong bike. The man didn't argue or act aggressive, though something about him "seemed a little off," Moreno said.

As Moreno drove off to work, he saw the man spraying down pavement with a garden hose.

Not long after, Moreno received a call from his wife, who told him that police killed the neighbor in a scuffle.

"I was talking to him 20 minutes ago, and he's dead," Moreno said.

Review-Journal reporter Lawrence Mower contributed to this report. Contact reporter Scott Wyland at swyland@reviewjournal.com or 702-455-4519.