Police to pay $89,000 to man shot by officer
The Metropolitan Police Department will pay $89,000 to a man shot by police at his front door four years ago.
The department's Committee on Fiscal Affairs approved the settlement for Austin Bryan at its meeting Monday morning.
The payment settles a federal lawsuit Bryan filed against the agency after the June 2006 shooting at an apartment complex in the southwest valley.
The incident began when Bryan, then 53, got into an argument with a Las Vegas Review-Journal salesman selling subscriptions door to door.
The salesman, Kevin Frayer, said Bryan confronted him, telling him solicitors weren't allowed in the complex. Then Bryan brandished a handgun, the salesman said..
Frayer called Las Vegas police, who went to Bryan's apartment and knocked on the door.
Bryan, who was disabled and lived with his 75-year-old mother, routinely answered the door with a handgun, according to his lawsuit.
He was on the phone with a police dispatcher reporting the solicitor when the officers arrived, but Bryan did not hear the officers identify themselves and assumed the solicitor had returned, his lawyer, Frank Cremin, said.
When Bryan answered the door with his gun in hand, one of the three officers at the door fired twice. The two bullets went through the door, broke apart and hit Bryan, Cremin said.
According to the lawsuit, Bryan lost the practical use of his left hand and can no longer walk without being hunched over.
Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@review
journal.com or 702-383-0281.
