North Las Vegas police officer cleared in shooting

Prosecutors have cleared a North Las Vegas police officer in the fatal shooting of a man on New Year's Day 2011.

Officer Jeffrey Pollard will not face criminal charges in the shooting of 32-year-old Fernando Giovanni Sauceda, who police said pointed a gun at the officer during a confrontation Jan. 1, 2011.

Pollard and another North Las Vegas SWAT officer approached a house at 609 Glendale Ave., near Carey Avenue and Fifth Street, when they heard gunshots at the home just after midnight. About six to 10 men were shooting guns into the air in celebration of the new year. There were 112 rounds fired from five handguns.

Sauceda's family said the officers, who were driving an unmarked Ford F-150 police truck and wearing green fatigues instead of patrol uniforms, never identified themselves as police.

The officers said they did identify themselves as they approached the house, and several adults at the party realized the men were officers, the report said. It was unclear what Sauceda knew. A pair of foam ear plugs were found underneath his body.

Pollard told an officer at the scene that Sauceda "put his (expletive) gun in my face." Pollard fired his handgun 12 times, hitting Sauceda with nine shots. The other officer heard the gunfire but did not witness the shooting, the report said. The report notes that Pollard showed "considerable restraint" in the shooting.

"When Decedent (Sauceda) no longer posed a threat to officers or civilians, no additional shots were fired," the report said.

There was no evidence of a close-range shooting, and it was unclear whether Sauceda fired upon officers, the report said.

Sauceda's family has filed a lawsuit against the North Las Vegas Police Department, alleging that officers crept up on Sauceda without provocation.

They "simply shot and killed Fernando," the lawsuit said.

The prosecutor's review found the witness statements of the partygoers to be less credible than the officers' statements. Many of the adults at the party had consumed large amounts of alcohol and marijuana, the report said.

It was the eighth officer-involved shooting reviewed by District Attorney Steve Wolfson's office. He began reviewing fatal police shootings because of the backlog of 19 cases awaiting review by a coroner's inquest jury.

The coroner's inquest has been delayed for 19 months because of changes to the system and legal challenges by police unions that rejected those changes.

It was the first North Las Vegas case reviewed by Wolfson's office.

Contact reporter Mike Blasky at mblasky@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283.