Las Vegas police say man who fired 21 rounds at officers shot himself
A 33-year-old man wanted for attempted murder fired 21 rounds at Las Vegas police during a barricade Thursday in the south valley before shooting himself, police said Monday.
Isai Rodriguez fired the rounds from an “AR-15 pistol” at Metropolitan Police Department SWAT officers outside the home during the barricade. SWAT officers Levi Hancock and Brett Brosnahan returned fire and struck Rodriguez, who then used a handgun to shoot himself in the head, Clark County Assistant Sheriff Brett Zimmerman told reporters at a Monday news conference.
It wasn’t yet clear whether the officers’ gunfire or Rodriguez’s own bullet killed him, Zimmerman said. The Clark County coroner’s office hadn’t released his cause and manner of death Monday afternoon.
Rodriguez had several outstanding warrants, including ones for attempted murder, battery with a deadly weapon and attempted grand larceny of an automobile. In one case, Zimmerman said, Rodriguez shot someone during an attempted carjacking, and in another he tried to run over officers during an investigation.
“It’s not good to be in an officer-involved shooting or have to take somebody’s life, but these are the individuals our cops are going up against on the street,” Zimmerman said.
Officers with Metro’s major violators section arrived about 4:45 p.m. Thursday at a family member’s house in the 400 block of Macbrey Drive, near Windmill Lane and Bermuda Road, and tried to get him to come out. Several people were inside, including a 15-year-old, who police later learned had been subjected to “inappropriate sexual contact” by Rodriguez, Zimmerman said.
SWAT and crisis negotiators were called after he refused to exit, and police treated the situation as a barricade, Zimmerman said. At 9:11 p.m., Rodriguez shot at police from inside the house, and Hancock and Brosnahan returned fire, hitting Rodriguez.
Officers continued to issue commands to the house, and others inside the house exited and were detained. At 11:40 p.m., police used a K-9 unit to help take Rodriguez, lying unresponsive on the ground, into custody, Zimmerman said.
Body-worn camera footage from officers Hancock and Brosnahan showed Rodriguez’s two volleys of gunfire — first out the back glass door toward Hancock and then out the front of the house toward officers.
Hancock was positioned behind a brick wall behind the house, and he had a line of sight toward Rodriguez, who was inside and near the front of the blacked-out home.
After the gunshots, a voice on Hancock’s footage can be heard saying, “I’ve got a visual, and he’s down by the front door.”
Hancock, 44, was one of two officers who fatally shot a double-homicide suspect Nov. 7, 2017, after that man also barricaded himself in a home for hours.
The suspect, Jarrett Blakely Varnado, began a standoff with police after two men were found dead in a neighborhood near Flamingo Road and Tenaya Way. Hancock and officer Kai Hoskins shot Varnado after pointing a replica handgun at officers, which was later determined to be a BB gun.
Hancock was also one of the first officers to breach the gunman’s room at the Mandalay Bay after the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting on Oct. 1, 2017.
Had Rodriguez survived, Zimmerman said, he would’ve face a charge of lewdness with a minor and several counts of attempted murder of an officer.
This was Metro’s first police shooting this year, according to Las Vegas Review-Journal records.
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Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Mia Sims contributed to this report.
