Published Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022 | 11:08 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022 | 5:54 p.m.
A man shot and critically injured by Metro Police last week at a gas station off of Las Vegas Boulevard pointed a gun at officers before fleeing to a railroad behind the gas station where he was later apprehended.
At a briefing today, Assistant Sheriff Lazaro Chavez identified to reporters details from the police shooting that occurred last Wednesday just before 11 p.m. in the 6100 block of Las Vegas Boulevard South near Sunset Road.
Chavez said officers Zachary Falldorf, 32, and Domonic Lee, 37, were fueling up their patrol cruiser at the gas station when a silver Honda SUV pulled up to the gas station next to officers. A woman then got out and approached officers while mouthing “help me” as she walked past.
As the woman was walking past, the man in her passenger seat — identified as Manuel Edwin Martinez, 34 — got out of the Honda and pointed a handgun at the officers, Chavez said.
The woman and the officers took cover and struck Martinez “several” times, prompting him to fall to the ground.
Security footage showed at the briefing then showed Martinez crawl to the front of the police cruiser as officers were still under cover. Martinez then got up, looked to see if officers were still around, then fled to railroad tracks directly behind the gas station, Chavez said.
A foot pursuit followed, and Martinez was taken into custody after falling to the ground again. Martinez was then taken to a nearby hospital and booked in absentia on counts of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon on a first responder, prohibited person in possession of a firearm and first-degree kidnapping. Martinez has since been released from the hospital and remains at the Clark County Detention Center, Chavez said.
Police later learned that Martinez and the woman he was with at the time of the shooting used to be in a relationship.
She told officers Martinez asked to pick her up to take him to the hospital, and once inside her vehicle, said he no longer wanted medical help and “made comments that made her feel uncomfortable,” and that she ultimately needed police intervention immediately, Chavez said.
Investigators uncovered that Falldorf fired two rounds and Lee shot seven rounds during the altercation, and Martinez did not fire his weapon. Falldorf has been with Metro since 2018 and Lee since 2017. Both are assigned to the South Central Area Command’s community policing division, Chavez said.
It’s Metro’s third police shooting of 2022 and first non-fatal shooting.
