Drug problems, mental illness plagued man killed by Metro

A man shot and killed by Las Vegas police last week after he fired at officers was a violent felon with a history of mental illness and drug problems.

Undersheriff Jim Dixon said the mother of Herbert Earl Green, 46, told police her son abused methamphetamine and suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. He had been convicted of seven felonies and had recent arrests on battery, DUI and child abuse charges, Dixon said.

Green was killed by officers April 29 after he charged from a house and emptied his five-shot, .38-caliber revolver at them, Dixon said. Green fired one of the shots just a few feet from officer Brooke Lavin’s head. Lavin was briefly hospitalized with hearing loss, and Dixon said it probably is a temporary injury.

Lavin and officers Michael Henry, Chad Cruse and Benjamin Baldassarre returned fire, killing Green.

The officers responded to the home at 5345 Palm St., near Russell Road and Mountain Vista Street, after Green called 911 and said he was “getting ready to be shot,” Dixon said.

A patrol sergeant on the way to the home, owned by Green’s mother, called Green for clarification. Green told the sergeant that he was angry because relatives stole his lottery winnings and that evidence was on the family’s computer, Dixon said.

Green’s mother told the sergeant there were guns in the home, but she didn’t believe her son could gain access to them.

Green was listening to his mother’s call to the sergeant, Dixon said, and began tearing through furniture. Police believe Green found the revolver stuffed under a mattress in the bedroom, Dixon said.

Officers tried negotiating with Green for about an hour and a half. During that time, Green occasionally walked outside and showed officers his cellphone.

But Green charged officers about 4 p.m. and initiated a “close-quarters” gunfight with police, he said.

The officers were forced to “think on their feet,” Dixon said.

After Green was shot, he was rushed to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where he died.

It was the seventh shooting for Metro this year, and the fourth fatal shooting.