Sheriff’s video asserts DA’s move for grand jury is ‘mistake’
Five days after rebuffing requests from news media and a top police union official, the Metropolitan Police Department on Friday released an internal video of Sheriff Doug Gillespie opposing the district attorney's decision to have a grand jury review a controversial deadly police shooting.
In the video released Friday, the sheriff tells his employees that he disagrees with Steve Wolfson, whose office is expected to present evidence in the shooting of Stanley Gibson to the panel next week.
"This organization remains committed to the preservation of life and the safety of our officers and community," Gillespie said. "I feel it is a mistake to take this case to a grand jury."
The Review-Journal reported the grand jury development Monday and requested the sheriff's video the same day under Nevada's public records law. But a police spokesman refused to make it public, saying it was an internal, copyrighted video meant only for the agency's 5,600 employees.
The Police Department did not explain why it reversed course by posting the video Friday on its YouTube page.
In the recording, a stern-faced Gillespie said once Wolfson moved forward, he had a "duty to let our organization know that I stand squarely on the side of our officers."
He called the shooting of Gibson, a 43-year-old disabled Gulf War veteran, a tragedy that was not a criminal act.
Chris Collins, head of the union for about 2,400 rank-and-file Las Vegas cops, had called for the release of the video since Monday.
"I think it's important that the community knows the sheriff does not think that the shooting of Stanley Gibson was criminal," said Collins, executive director of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association.
Gibson was apparently lost and distraught when Las Vegas police encountered him in the parking lot of a northwest valley apartment complex early on Dec. 12.
His car was boxed in by two police cars, and he didn't respond to commands to exit his car.
Police hatched a plan to remove him from the car: One officer would shoot out a window with a beanbag shotgun round before another doused the interior with pepper spray. But when the shotgun was fired, officer Jesus Arevalo fired seven times into the vehicle with an AR-15 rifle. Gibson, who was unarmed, died at the scene.
"A tragedy of this magnitude demands that we as an agency take a critical look at ourselves and take steps to ensure history does not repeat itself," Gillespie said.
The controversial shooting came within weeks of a Review-Journal investigation showing that the department was reluctant to learn from, and hold officers accountable for, problem shootings.
After the first day of the series, the head of the Community Oriented Policing Services office at the U.S. Department of Justice called Gillespie and offered to help.
The sheriff agreed to a COPS office review of his agency's use-of-force policies and procedures. A final report is expected within the month .
Contact reporter Brian Haynes at
bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0281.
