Man fatally shot by Las Vegas police was ‘charitable’

The family of a man shot by a Las Vegas police officer Tuesday at an apartment complex in the east valley said they will remember him as kind, polite and generous.

Justin Charland, 40, was shot three times after police said he approached officers while carrying a sword and screaming “run” around 11:15 a.m. at the Sandhill Apartments, 3000 S. Sandhill Road.

Police later said they had “provided services related to mental health issues” to Charland in past years.

Leslie and Joe Oakley, Charland’s paternal aunt and uncle, said Charland served in the Army for two years before he was honorably discharged and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

“With schizophrenia, they tend to take their meds until they feel well, and then they convince themselves that they don’t need their meds, and then they stop,” said Leslie Oakley, a former employee at Veterans Affairs and at mental health clinics.

Charland had been under VA care for 20 years after his discharge, returning to his hometown of Boulder City, according to the Oakleys. He moved into Sandhill Apartments to care for his father, who died in 2018.

“He was very charitable,” Leslie Oakley said. “He would help anybody that needed help.”

Joe Oakley said his nephew made jewelry and wanted to teach people how to play chess. Charland also had taken classes at the University of Utah.

“He was always trying to better himself,” he said.

Charland had a large family in Arizona, Joe Oakley said, but the medicine he was taking made him sleep all day and left him lonely. He said he feels sorry for officer Vincent Segura, who was identified as the firing officer.

“Justin was suffering with an illness that wasn’t a crime,” he said. “He was gunned down by a police officer, and bless his heart, I’m sorry he had to do that. But I know it was the illness that was pushing Justin, and it was suicide. My heart goes out to the police officer for what he had to do.”

Justin’s sister, Jackie Charland, is working with the Oakleys to create remembrances of Charland and mental illness awareness via the email mental.illness.isnt.a.crime@gmail.com.

“Justin would sometimes loan money to people who needed help or give them a place to sleep if they needed it, rides to work for a month or more because of a broken down car, I can remember Justin saying that he had loaned out money so many times and not been paid back,” she said in a Facebook post honoring her brother.

The Oakleys are hoping Charland’s death can better inform others of the signs of mental illness.

“We want to get out there that Justin didn’t die in vain, that I wish everybody would understand his illness and what he was dealing with,” Joe Oakley said. “He was a good man. He served his country, he came out sick, and he didn’t deserve to die this way.”

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.