Police body cam shows fatal shooting of man wielding wrench, screwdriver

Associated Press

Published Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015 | 3:45 p.m.

Updated Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015 | 5:09 p.m.

Metro Police aired a body camera recording Wednesday of the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old man accused of lunging with a metal wrench and screwdriver toward two officers searching for him in his mother's home last week.

Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said Abel Correa had the wrench and screwdriver in his hands above his head as he burst from a coat closet toward two officers investigating a neighborhood vandalism complaint.

One of the officers is heard telling Correa to get his hands up. His hands aren't clearly seen in the video clip.

McMahill also described for reporters a series of police calls dating to mid-June for incidents involving mischief calls and mental health concerns about Correa.

They included complaints about slashed tires in the neighborhood; Correa's mother's call for help while he smashed items in the house; Correa's claim that neighbors were putting spells on him; and Correa's hospitalization for an involuntary 72-hour mental health evaluation.

Correa was pronounced dead at a hospital after the shooting Friday in the home where his mother had obtained court orders to keep him away at least through Sept. 8.

Video from Officer Glen Taylor's collar camera shows the split-second when Correa emerged from a clothes closet behind the front door, and Taylor, 50, and Officer Eli Prunchak, 41, fired a total of six shots.

Taylor and Prunchak have a combined 31 years on the police force, McMahill said, and at least one of them had been on a previous recent police call to the Correa home. Each is now on paid leave pending reviews of the shooting.

McMahill said the shooting illustrated the difficulty police have handling people who need mental health care.

"When it comes to mental health services in this country, we, the system, often fail people who need critical services and don't get them," McMahill said.

McMahill also showed video recorded by a neighbor who called police early Friday after recording a person clearly identifiable as Correa throwing an object through the neighbor's window and running back inside his mother's house.

A photo showed a steel trailer hitch ball photographed on a brown lounge chair next to a bed. No one was reported to have been injured.

McMahill said the officers got permission from Correa's mother to search the home before Correa charged from the coat closet toward Prunchak with his hands over his head — the pointed Phillips screwdriver in one and the crescent wrench in his other.

The shooting was the seventh this year involving Metro Police.