Man shot by Las Vegas police officer receives probation

A 27-year-old man was sentenced to probation on Thursday, months after he was shot by a Las Vegas police officer.

Hector Orellana was armed with a pen when he was shot March 14 by Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Raul Rodriguez, police have said. Orellana lunged at Rodriguez while holding the pen near a homeless facility on Main Street in downtown Las Vegas, according to an arrest report.

After his arrest, Orellana told investigators that he was planning to stab the officer in the face. He said he wanted the officer to kill him so he would not have to go to prison.

Orellana pleaded guilty in July to a felony charge of assault on a protected person, court records show. As part of his plea agreement, prosecutors said they had no opposition to District Judge Eric Johnson placing Orellana on probation, as long as he was accepted into the District Court’s mental health program.

Because he was accepted into the program, Johnson sentenced Orellana to no more than four years of probation. Orellana appeared in court Thursday through a video call from the Clark County Detention Center.

“Good luck, sir, in the program,” Johnson told the defendant, who declined to give a statement to the judge during the sentencing hearing.

During a court hearing in July, Orellana told the judge he was being treated for schizophrenia. Orellana told police after his arrest that he heard voices that made him paranoid.

At about noon on March 14, Rodriguez approached Orellana to break up a fight he was in with another man near the downtown homeless facility, according to the arrest report. Orellana then kicked Rodriguez and threw a punch at the officer before pulling a plastic pen out of his pocket and raising it.

Rodriguez stepped backward and fell on the ground, and Orellana rushed toward him. The officer shot Orellana three times, hitting him once, the report said.

The fight and shooting were caught on surveillance cameras. Rodriguez was not wearing a body camera, which only lower-ranking officers are required to have.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.