Police shoot knife-wielding man downtown

A man was shot and seriously wounded Tuesday afternoon near the downtown area after he swung a knife at an officer, Las Vegas police said.

The man, who was in critical condition at University Medical Center on Tuesday night, was not identified by police.

Deputy Chief Jim Owens said the man was jaywalking across Fremont Street when two officers in a patrol car saw and stopped him.

The man ran into the Travel Inn at 2028 E. Fremont St., near 21st Street. An officer followed him inside.

Owens said two witnesses told police that, once inside, the man grabbed a knife from his pants and walked toward the officer, swinging the knife at him.

The officer then fired several rounds at the man.

"The officer felt his life was in danger and acted appropriately," Owens said of the 4:47 p.m. shooting.

The officer was not hurt in the encounter. Owens said he did not know how many times the man was shot.

The name of the officer who fired on the man will be released 48 hours after the shooting, per department policy.

Several people witnessed what happened before and after the shooting.

Connie Calvillo said she was outside the Travel Inn when she looked into the office's windows and waved to an employee. The employee, a woman friendly with Calvillo, looked frightened. That's when Calvillo noticed a man in front of the two employees. He was extending his arm as if he was holding something.

Calvillo could not see a weapon, but she realized the situation was dangerous and ran across Fremont. As soon as she made it across the street, she heard several gunshots.

"I was scared for them (the employees) and I ran," Calvillo said.

Scott Griffin, who works at the auto parts store across from the Travel Inn, said he was outside speaking with a co-worker when he heard four gunshots.

Griffin and his co-worker "defied logic" when they both peered around the corner instead of running into the store for cover. Griffin saw an officer exit the front door of the Travel Inn. The officer looked "frazzled."

"You could definitely smell the primer and gun powder," Griffin said.

Griffin said he went to see what had happened during the shooting because he wanted to know if someone was hurt and needed help.

Griffin said he has been working at the store for about a year and that it's not uncommon to hear gunfire. "This is not the best neighborhood."

Las Vegas police shootings have come under increased scrutiny since late last year, when the Review-Journal profiled the department's history of shootings for the past two decades and found a force that was slow to adopt policies and procedures to protect officers and the public.

Tuesday's shooting was the first of 2012 for the Metropolitan Police Department. It was also the first since the controversial fatal shooting of Stanley Gibson on Dec. 12.

Gibson, 43, a disabled war veteran, was in his car, which was pinned between two police vehicles, when a police plan to safely resolve the situation went awry and an officer fired seven rounds into the car with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. He was shot in the back of the head.

The shooting, coupled with two other controversial shootings in 2010, sparked the local chapters of the NAACP and ACLU to request the U.S. Department of Justice investigate how Las Vegas police use deadly force. Last year, Las Vegas police were involved in 17 shootings, 12 of which were fatal.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie is expected to meet with officials from the federal department today to determine what role, if any, federal officials will play in investigating how Las Vegas police deal with shootings by their officers.

Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.