LV man killed by police

A Henderson police officer shot and killed a man armed with a handgun during a traffic stop Wednesday morning, police said.

Two officers in a patrol car noticed the 53-year-old man get into a blue Ford Mustang convertible with California license plates in the desert near Foothills and Equestrian drives at 10:37 a.m.

"It just didn't look right," so the officers ran a license plate check and discovered the car was reported stolen in September, Henderson police spokesman Keith Paul said.

The officers pulled over the Mustang in the parking lot of a Walgreens on Boulder Highway at Racetrack Road, Paul said.

The man, a Las Vegas resident whose name was withheld by authorities, then got out of the car and began walking toward the officers while carrying a handgun, Paul said. Police told the man to put down the gun, but when he didn't, one of the officers shot him, according to police.

The man did not fire the weapon, which was found at the scene, and only one of the two officers fired at the man, Paul said.

The man was taken to St. Rose Dominican Hospital, de Lima campus, where he died, police said.

Bobby Smith said he was taking a break from laying concrete for a new grocery store across the street when he watched the incident unfold. Smith said the suspect's hands were empty as he walked toward the two officers.

"I saw their body language. It got kind of weird," Smith said. "I turned to my buddy and said, 'They're going to shoot him.' And they just pumped him."

Both of the officers will be placed on routine paid administrative leave, police said. Their names are to be released 48 hours after the shooting.

The shooting was the first involving Henderson police officers this year, and the first for the department since May 30, Paul said.

Henderson police had one officer-involved shooting in 2006 and one in 2007, Paul said.

Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0440.