Public hearing examines man’s November shooting death by Las Vegas police

It will be the one-year anniversary of his death.

McEniry was 32 when he was fatally shot by three Las Vegas police officers on Nov. 24 at the French Oaks condominium complex near Maryland Parkway and Katie Avenue.

Questions about the incident still linger for his family, who spoke to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday after a public review of his death.

Public fact-finding reviews of officer-involved shootings are held after the Clark County district attorney’s office has preliminarily determined that a shooting was justified.

McEniry’s wife, Winona, and mother, Carol Luke, began sobbing loudly Monday when prosecutors played footage from the officers’ body-worn camera systems.

Luke said she’s concerned with what she calls “inconsistencies” in the statement of officer Robert Nord, 26, the only officer involved in the shooting to submit a voluntary statement.

Winona McEniry said she was told five hours after the shooting that her husband was still fighting for his life at the hospital, but the man died minutes after he arrived at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center. Such misrepresentations have cast a shadow over the whole incident, she said.

“He died the minute they put eight bullets in him,” Winona McEniry said.

She also said police falsely claimed she told them her husband was suicidal and paranoid.

“That wasn’t the case,” she said.

The Metropolitan Police Department has said the six-minute altercation started when officer Kyle Prior, 26, saw a white sedan in the area of East Sahara Avenue and Maryland with a license plate from another vehicle.

Detective Mark Colon, from Metro’s force investigation team, testified Monday that officers stayed back and continued to watch the car, rather than pursue it using lights and sirens, and tracked it to the French Oaks complex.

Footage from Prior’s body camera shows he was the first to encounter Thomas McEniry in the complex. In the footage, he commands the man to put his hands on the hood of his patrol car.

Thomas McEniry begins to back away, saying that he didn’t do anything. Prior draws his gun and chases the man into a fenced-off area in the complex. Squeezing through a 16-inch gap in the fencing, Prior sees Thomas McEniry standing in a corner with his hands behind his back and yells at him to put them up.

“Do it now or I’ll shoot you in the f——— face,” he shouts at the man.

At 2:05 a.m., Thomas McEniry was hit with a stun gun, but only one electrical prong made contact with him. Four seconds after that, three officers shot the man eight times, hitting his chest, back, leg and wrist. Officers Nord and Prior each fired three rounds. Officer Donald Sutton III, 32, fired twice.

Colon said Monday that he had not seen any indication that police saw a gun in Thomas McEniry’s hand.

An Air Soft pistol, which looked like a handgun, was found near him. Nord’s statement said the Air Soft pistol fell out of Thomas McEniry’s waistband as the man fell to his knees because of the stun gun.

Police said Thomas McEniry turned to pick up the pellet gun and began to turn back toward the officers, raising the threat level.

Luke said she’s pursuing legal options and trying to heal.

“I know my son is at peace,” she said. “This is the time where I have to be strong. This is a time for clarity to be brought forth.”

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.