Police unsure if slain man fired gun

Metro Police are trying to determine today if a man shot and killed by two officers Saturday actually fired his gun or tried to fire and the gun malfunctioned.

Either way, police say, 23-year-old John Charles O'Banion rose from his hiding place behind a car with a gun in his hand and aimed at officers who had been chasing the suspect about 10 p.m. Two officers on top of a nearby roof saw O'Banion and fired at him, Capt. Greg Jolley said.

"We have a couple of citizens who said they saw the suspect firing once at the officers. We're not certain if the weapon actually fired, but there are indications that he tried to fire," Jolley said.

O'Banion was hit by the gunfire and fell to the ground, dropping the gun from his hand. He then reached over and grabbed his gun again. The officers on the roof fired more shots, Jolley said.

In all, the two officers fired 11 shots and apparently hit O'Banion 11 times, police said.

The officer-involved shooting Saturday night in a northwest Las Vegas neighborhood marked the fourth time this year that Metro Police officers have fired at people.

In two of the other three instances, people were hit, but not fatally, and in the third the officer missed his intended target.

The events that set in motion O'Banion's death began just 12 minutes before he was killed. Police said his blue Ford Mustang without license plates rolled through a signal light at Michael Way and Vegas Drive and refused to stop when a patrol officer tried to make a traffic stop.

Police said this morning the Mustang was stolen, and O'Banion was wanted on several outstanding misdemeanor warrants.

A chase began at about 9:30 p.m., and during the pursuit the Mustang was being driven erratically and at times on the wrong side of the street, police said.

Near Alexander Road and Buffalo Drive one of Metro's helicopters picked up the pursuit that ended minutes later in the front yard of a home on the southeast corner of Talmage Street and Dinning Avenue near Torrey Pines Drive and U.S. 95.

More than 30 feet of black skid marks from the tires of the Mustang -- caused when the driver attempted to make a left turn -- are still imprinted on Talmage. Instead of completing the turn, the car hit the curb and came to rest near three palm trees in a dirt front yard.

O'Banion ran from his vehicle north across Dinning and kicked open the front door of Raul Newman's home, police said.

"My step-daughter and her two children were the only ones home when they heard the crashing at the front door," Newman said. "She was in the bedroom with the 4-year-old, and she was coming out to see what had happened when the man pointed a handgun in her face. She was very frightened."

Newman says the gunman ran through the house and out the sliding door in the back of the home, leaving Newman's step-daughter and her two children, ages 8 and 4, safe.

"He must have jumped our back wall after running through the house," Newman said.

Police began searching the area on foot, and three officers took a vantage point on top of the roof of a house in the 6500 block of Aberdeen Lane, directly behind and north of Newman's home, police said.

Police say they spotted O'Banion crouching behind a car near the garage of the home on Aberdeen. Officers on the ground began to approach O'Banion's hiding spot from the street when two of the three officers on the roof saw him rise out of his crouch and level a gun at the officers coming toward him, police said.

The two officers on the roof behind O'Banion fired at him, striking him several times.

The owner of the house where O'Banion was killed said she could hear the events play out from inside.

"We were sleeping, and then we could hear some noises of people moving around on the roof," the woman who asked to remain anonymous said. "Then we heard what sounded like a lot of shots, but I think it was only six."

First aid was given by officers, but O'Banion died of his wounds at the scene, police said.

Officer Steve Meriwether, a Metro spokesman, said he did not know what type of weapons the officers on the roof had used in the shooting, and that the names of the officers who fired would not be released for 48 hours, in accordance with a department policy.

Reached at their home Sunday afternoon, O'Banion's family had no comment.

O'Banion was a three-time convicted felon for burglary, auto burglary and possession of a stolen vehicle, police said.

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