North Las Vegas shooting: Family defends ‘dedicated’ dad

A teenage father paralyzed by police gunfire during a chaotic scene in a North Las Vegas apartment complex last week was a bystander who had nothing to do with the disturbance that drew gun- toting officers, his family said Tuesday.

Lamar Kiles, 18, was holding his 5-month-old son on the morning of Aug. 13 when he heard a clamor outside his father's home in the troubled Judith Villas complex and decided to investigate.

Moments later, Kiles lay bleeding on the ground from a police shotgun blast that shattered his pelvis.

"He had just set the baby down," said Kiles' aunt, Angela Tatum.

"He was just trying to see what the commotion was about," said Kiles' sister, Sherita Thomas.

Kiles remains unconscious and in critical condition at University Medical Center, where doctors have informed his family that he must undergo a series of surgeries but has little chance of ever walking again.

The incident remains under investigation. North Las Vegas Police Department officials declined Tuesday to say whether they believed the shooting was justified.

But the Police Department said officer Robinson Reed was caught in a difficult and confusing situation when he fired his 12-gauge shotgun at Kiles.

Police had been called to the apartment complex twice that morning on reports of gunfire. When officers arrived the second time about 12:55 a.m., Reed and about five other officers bolted through the dark complex with guns drawn in search of the source of the shots.

Numerous young men were running in all directions, and the officers were trying to control them, said officer Justin Roberts, a spokesman for the department.

Kiles came up behind Reed and two other officers as they were trying to get some of the young men in handcuffs.

Reed saw Kiles "make a furtive movement leading the officer to believe his life was in jeopardy," Roberts said.

Reed fired a single blast from his shotgun, striking Kiles in the side.

All North Las Vegas police patrol vehicles are equipped with shotguns, and officers have discretion in when to employ these more powerful weapons over their service pistols.

Police later said they believed the shots they had heard were members of two gangs exchanging gunfire. One man, 19-year-old Michael Harris, was arrested on suspicion of shooting into an occupied structure.

Police recovered two weapons in the complex after the shooting, including a handgun about 15 feet from where Kiles fell to the ground.

Police said they are still investigating whether Kiles possibly tossed the weapon to the ground during the incident.

At a news conference Tuesday morning at a church only a few miles from where Kiles was shot, three family members sobbed as they described the 18-year-old as a dedicated father who would never carry a firearm.

"He is not in any type of gang," said Tatum, Kiles' aunt.

Kiles' family, which is considering filing a lawsuit against the Police Department, said Kiles had recently enrolled in a community college culinary arts program and aspired to become a chef.

Before that, he shined as a player on a Nevada Youth Sports League football team. But doctors have told the family that Kiles likely will spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

"They told us that his entire pelvic region was just vaporized," Tatum said.

Reed, an officer for 7 1/2 years, is on paid administrative leave, a standard procedure in all officer-involved shootings.

An internal police board will meet later this month to determine whether his actions were justified and within Police Department policy. There is no civilian representation on the board.

Within the Police Department, Reed is known as a dedicated officer who has shown deep concern for the disadvantaged.

North Las Vegas Police Chief Mark Paresi told the crowd gathered at a City Hall ceremony last year that Reed went to work on the day his first child was born to conduct a graduation for schoolchildren who had completed the Drug Abuse and Resistance Education program.

Reed at the time was the D.A.R.E. instructor.

In July 2002, Paresi awarded Reed with a community service commendation for extraordinary dedication to his duties and volunteering in police outreach programs on his own time.

The honor was mainly bestowed on Reed for his efforts in solely organizing a program that provided needy children with gifts at Christmas.