Police identify officer who killed knife-wielding man

A Las Vegas police officer who shot and killed a man wielding a knife Saturday was identified Tuesday as 31-year-old Joseph Parra.

Parra has been employed with the Metropolitan Police Department since May 2007 and is a patrol officer assigned to the Bolden Area Command.

Police said officers responded to an apartment complex in the 5800 block of Bromley Avenue about 11:30 p.m. Saturday after reports that a man with a knife had stabbed several people.

When officers arrived, they found 45-year-old Brian Shelton holding a knife and sitting on a block wall, police said.

Officers ordered Shelton to drop the knife, but he refused and "aggressively approached" them with the weapon, prompting Parra to fire three times, Las Vegas police said.

Shelton was taken to University Medical Center, where he died.

Police did not find stabbing victims at the complex near Jones Boulevard and Washington Avenue.

The police were unsure whether the stabbing report had been made up by Shelton or whether victims were seeking medical attention, he said.