Henderson police fatally shoot man armed with box cutter

A woman’s loud screams led Henderson police officers to force their way into a home early Thursday and shoot a man wielding a box cutter.

It was still dark when police arrived about 4:15 a.m. at a gated community of well-kept houses on the 1500 block of Point Vista Avenue in response to a woman’s call for help, police said.

Inside they found a man inside a closet armed with a box cutter and the screaming woman, who police said was “in obvious distress.” She was later taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center for unspecified but survivable injuries.

The officers ordered the man to drop the weapon, but he instead “charged” at them with the box cutter, police spokesman Lt. Kirk Moore said Thursday morning at a news briefing outside the department’s east station at 223 Lead St.

Moore paused briefly before looking up at reporters to say, “Officers responded with deadly force.” The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Moore did not say how many officers had fired their weapons, although he confirmed that police were wearing body cameras. Footage was still being reviewed, he said.

Further details were not immediately available. Moore declined to take questions at the news briefing, which happened about six hours after the shooting had occurred.

The involved officers have been placed on paid leave pending the department’s investigation.

The incident was the Henderson Police Department’s second officer-involved shooting this year. The first happened about a month ago, when a team of federal and local authorities attempted to take a man into custody after he had allegedly struck two officers with a car a day earlier.

Thursday’s shooting also was only the second incident of use-of-force by Henderson police caught on body cameras. The cameras were a recent addition to the department after Senate Bill 170 went into law July 1, requiring law enforcement agencies to equip officers who routinely interact with the public with portable cameras.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Mike Shoro contributed to this report.