Police: Man shot, killed by Metro officers had criminal past, mental illness

By Pashtana Usufzy

Monday, Nov. 30, 2015 | 6:35 p.m.

A man killed last week by Metro Police after aiming a pellet gun in the direction of an officer had a lengthy criminal history as well as a history of mental illness, according to police.

Las Vegas resident Thomas Joseph McEniry, 32, was fatally shot after pointing a Stinger 6mm airsoft pistol at an officer following an attempted vehicle stop and a short foot pursuit, Assistant Sheriff Kirk Primas said in a news conference today.

Police said three officers — 26-year-old Kyle Prior, 26-year-old Robert Nord and 32-year-old Donald Sutton III — fired eight rounds total after McEniry reached for the weapon and pointed it in Prior’s direction.

All three officers were wearing body cameras, and police released footage from the cameras today.

Primas painted a portrait of McEniry as a man with a long record of run-ins with the law and a history of mental illness.

From 2001 to 2009, he was arrested 32 times on theft and narcotics-related charges, police said.

McEniry was taking prescribed medication earlier this year and held down a job, but he had recently quit taking his medication and began using illegal drugs, police said.

His record included charges of child abuse and battery/domestic violence from this year, as well as charges of grand larceny auto and burglary in 2009, police said.

He spent about four years in Nevada Department of Corrections custody and had a number of aliases, according to police and court records.

McEniry was also a suspect in a Nov. 20 robbery at a Home Depot, police said.

The suspect in the robbery shoplifted, and when confronted by security, he pulled out a black handgun, police said.

"None of the officers knew the suspect nor his history" before or during the officer-involved shooting early Tuesday, Primas said.

The officer-involved incident began when Prior tried to stop a 1994 Mitsubishi Mirage about 2 a.m. Tuesday at 1750 E. Karen Ave., near Sahara Avenue and Maryland Parkway, after a license plate check showed records matching a different vehicle, police said.

Police later learned the car belonged to McEniry, but it was unregistered with plates from another vehicle, Primas said.

McEniry didn't stop when Prior tried to pull him over, and Prior didn't follow, instead requesting an air unit per Metro policy, Primas said.

A few minutes later, an officer noticed the unoccupied car heading east on Katie Avenue from Cambridge Street with its lights off.

The officer put his patrol vehicle in front of the car to prevent it from entering the intersection of Katie and Maryland Parkway, Primas said.

Police set up a perimeter in the area, and witnesses told police McEniry ran into the French Oaks apartments, about two miles from the location of the original stop, Primas said.

When police arrived, McEniry was being escorted off the premises by security for trying to open vehicle doors in a parking lot, police said.

In video from the incident, Prior can be heard ordering the suspect to put his hands on the bumper of the Metro car and to show his hands, but McEniry doesn't follow the orders, instead fleeing.

He runs, screaming "I didn't do nothing" as Prior chases with gun drawn.

When McEniry enters an enclosure in the lot, he kneels on the ground with his hands apparently behind him.

Prior follows him in, and Nord and Sutton arrive on scene but are behind a fence. The officers yell for McEniry to put his hands up, but he doesn't.

Prior then deploys a stun gun, which was "ineffective due to a thick jacket McEniry was wearing," Primas said.

“McEniry reacted. He fought through it,” he said.

McEniry fell backward, screaming, but he was not incapacitated and instead rolled over, police said.

The officers can be heard yelling “get up, stop” and “gun, gun, gun” in video footage.

McEniry grabbed a “very realistic” airsoft pistol that fell out of his waistband, and he pointed it in the direction of Prior, Primas said.

The officers fired, and McEniry was taken to Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead about 40 minutes after the initial attempted car stop, police said.

Prior has been with Metro for seven years, and Nord and Sutton have been with the department about one year. The officers were placed on paid administrative leave following the incident, which is standard operating procedure.

This is the 12th Metro Police officer-involved shooting overall this year and the eighth fatal incident, police said.