Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2003 | 10:55 a.m.
A former Metro Police officer was shot and killed by police Monday after kidnapping a Henderson doctor in an attempt to feed his addiction to prescription drugs, Metro Police said.
The shooting happened shortly after 1 p.m. near a Walgreens pharmacy drive-through window at Eastern and Serene avenues.
David Freeman, 32, who resigned from Metro three months ago amid allegations that he was abusing prescription drugs, had been stalking Dr. Sheldon Mike, Sheriff Bill Young said this morning. Mike filed a complaint against Freeman last week.
This situation, in which an former Metro cop is shot and killed by his former colleagues, is unprecedented, Young said.
"To my knowledge we have never been in a situation in which a former police officer was involved in a kidnapping that resulted in his death," Young said. "I personally believe it was suicide by cop."
The incident unfolded about 1 p.m. Monday, when police say Freeman kidnapped Mike from the parking lot in front of the St. Rose Urgent Care Medical Center on Green Valley Parkway and Interstate 215, police said.
Police said Freeman forced Mike to call in a prescription at Walgreens, then drove to the pharmacy with the doctor handcuffed in the passenger seat.
Acting on a tip, Metro Police officers in unmarked cars began a stakeout at the drug store and, within minutes, the suspect's late-model Chrysler pulled up to the drive-through window, Capt. Tom Lozich of Metro's robbery-homicide unit said.
Plainclothed officers approached the vehicle, identified themselves as police and ordered the suspect to surrender, Lozich said.
Instead, the suspect pulled out a handgun.
"Fearing for their own safety and the safety of the victim," Lozich said, at least one officer fired a shot at Freeman, who was later pronounced dead at the scene.
Mike was shot in the shoulder, but the injury was not life-threatening, and a spokesperson at the University Medical Center's trauma unit said he was in stable condition Monday night.
Police did not explain Tuesday whether they had accidentally shot Mike or if Freeman shot him.
Late last year Metro's Internal Affairs Bureau began investigating Freeman in connection with his use of prescription drugs, Young said.
Metro has a policy in which officers must tell their supervisors if they are taking prescription drugs that may impair their judgment, and Freeman didn't do that, Young said.
Freeman was not taking medication for legitimate reasons -- Young said he was abusing them. He wasn't certain which drugs Freeman was allegedly taking.
Metro officials put Freeman in touch with an employee assistance program, but nothing worked, Young said.
Young planned to fire Freeman, but he resigned May 29. Metro generally allows employees who are aware that termination is imminent to resign, he said.
"We tried everything in the world to help this guy," Young said. "This is just a real tragedy."
Freeman began working for Metro in 1995 as a corrections officer at the Clark County Detention Center. Young said he thought Freeman was a patrol officer when he quit.
Mike Dare, who witnessed the scene from the balcony of his apartment overlooking the Walgreens drive-through, said he heard three gunshots, each about 10 to 15 seconds apart.
"I heard the shouting and I went out on my balcony to see what was going on, and I seen cops with their weapons drawn towards a car," Dare said.
He said he dove back into the house when the first shot went off, but he and his roommates came back out onto the balcony in time to see the second shot fired.
"Another shot went off, then they pulled the passenger out, who was in handcuffs when they pulled him out," Dare said. "The third shot went off, the car pulled forward -- it was in drive -- and hit (one of the unmarked police cars).
"Then (police officers) pulled the driver out of the vehicle -- it must have been the third shot that killed him."
Dare said the evidence he saw indicated that Mike may have been shot accidentally by one of the police officers.
"There was a bullet hole in the top right hand corner of the windshield, so whoever shot that bullet must have hit the passenger because, when they pulled the passenger out, he had a bullet wound."
The violence came as a shock to area residents.
"My first thought was that I don't want to get shot," Dare said. "What was going through people's minds was, 'How can this happen (here)?"'
Justin Gervasi, who was at the medical office building where Mike was kidnapped Monday, said he was surprised to see the cluster of police officers when he arrived for his appointment.
Even more surprising was the news that a doctor had been abducted at gunpoint, Gervasi said.
"It does seem kind of drastic for this side of town," said Gervasi, a commercial truck driver. "Maybe you'd hear something like that happening downtown, but not in Green Valley."
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