Man dies in 2nd officer-involved shooting in Las Vegas

A man is dead after the Metropolitan Police Department’s second officer-involved shooting in a span of 10 hours, Las Vegas police said.

He was thought to have been involved in a hit-and run crash and a carjacking near Searchlight, a Metropolitan Police Department release said. In a separate event, Metro officers later responded about 10:50 p.m. to reports of a suicidal man on the 1500 block of Saylor Way, near Jones Boulevard and Vegas Drive, where they found a man inside of a pickup truck, Capt. Nichole Splinter said.

“They were receiving additional information from NHP, which correlated and brought it to the attention that this may very well be the same individual,” Splinter told media at an early Sunday briefing.

The man began shooting out of his rear window and toward Metro officers, one of whom returned fire and took cover, police said.

A few minutes later, police formed an arrest team and discovered he was dead inside of the car, she said, adding that it wasn’t known whether police fatally shot him or if he took his own life.

While it wasn’t clear Sunday morning what information linked him to the crash and carjacking, troopers had responded to a hit-and-run crash near Searchlight about 9:15 p.m., police said. While they did, they received word of a carjacking that occurred several miles north of the crash.

An armed man had stopped a vehicle on a highway and stole it, the release said. Troopers learned the vehicle was likely heading toward Las Vegas.

Further details on the crash and carjacking were not immediately available.

The Clark County coroner’s office will release the man’s identity as well as his cause and manner of death once his family is notified.

The name of the officer who fired shots will be released after 48 hours. Police will provide additional information on the shooting within 72 hours.

The shooting by Metro was the department’s 12th this year, and the second of the day.

About 1:15 p.m. Saturday, Metro officers shot and killed a man after an hourslong barricade north of the Strip. Police said that man was accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a woman, and had fired at officers from inside of an apartment on Baltimore Avenue, near Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue.

Metro spoke with him on the phone several times, Splinter said at an earlier briefing on the shooting. The man would shoot toward officers and into the neighboring area when officers tried other ways to take him into custody, a Metro release later said.

Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.