Las Vegas police ID 2 officers who fired at man

Las Vegas police have identified two officers who shot at a man after he fired at them early Sunday in the northwest valley.

The officers were Michael Hennessey, 30, and Eric Wennerberg, 36. No one was injured during the gunfire, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

The man officers shot at was identified through court records and Clark County Detention Center booking logs as Nicholas Tano, 25. He faces nine counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, nine counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of resisting a public officer with a firearm, court records show.

About 3:40 a.m. Sunday, police were called to the 8900 block of Happy Stream Avenue, near West Grand Teton Drive and North El Capitan Way, after a woman reported her ex-boyfriend wanted to kill himself, Capt. Nichole Splinter told reporters near the scene Sunday.

When officers arrived, they saw the man get into a vehicle and drive to the intersection of El Capitan and Grand Teton, where he stopped, Metro said. The man got out of the vehicle with a handgun and shot several times at police.

The officers then shot at the man, who ran away, police said.

Police found the man nearby and “attempted to engage in dialog to de-escalate the situation,” which was treated as a barricade, Metro said in a statement on Sunday. Crisis negotiators were called to the scene, and the man was arrested about three hours later “without further incident.”

Tano was booked into the detention center, where he remained Tuesday with $250,000 bail, court records show.

Hennessey has worked for Metro since 2016, and is currently assigned to the northeast area command’s community policing division. Wennerberg, who has been employed by the department since 2018, is currently assigned to the Summerlin area command’s community policing division, Metro said Tuesday.

Both officers have been placed on routine paid administrative leave while the department investigates the shooting.

Further information about Tano’s arrest was not immediately available. On Monday, Metro denied a Review-Journal records request for Tano’s arrest report, citing an active or internal investigation.

He is due to appear in court on Wednesday morning, court records show.

Sunday marked the 13th police shooting involving Metro officers this year. Six of the 13 police shootings this year have been fatal, according to records maintained by the Review-Journal.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.