Officer shoots suspect in convenience store robbery

By Cristina Chang

Published Tuesday, July 17, 2012 | 11:33 a.m.

Updated Tuesday, July 17, 2012 | 2:34 p.m.

A 19-year-old Las Vegas suspect in a convenience store robbery is in critical condition after being shot early today by a Metro Police officer.

Metro said the incident occurred around 2 a.m. at 7-Eleven, 2003 N. Jones Boulevard, at the intersection of Jones and Lake Mead Parkway.

Metro spokesman Officer Bill Cassell, in a news release, said the officer was in the store’s parking lot when he saw two customers leaving the store in an “excited manner.”

The customers told the officer an armed robbery was taking place inside the store.

The officer walked to the front of the store, Cassell said, where he saw a man pointing a .38 caliber handgun at the clerk. The officer entered the store and “challenged” the suspect, who turned and pointed his gun toward the officer. At that point, the officer fired several rounds, disabling the suspect.

Lawrence Howard, 19, Las Vegas, was immediately taken into custody and transported to the University Medical Center in stable but critical condition.

Additional officers arrived at the scene and found a second suspect, an unarmed 17-year-old, hiding under the counter and placed him into custody, according to the report. He has been booked into the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center on counts of robbery and burglary with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit robbery.

Howard remained hospitalized Tuesday afternoon but has been booked in abstentia on counts of robbery and burglary with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and assault on a police officer with a deadly weapon. His bail has been set at $100,000.

The store clerk was not injured in the incident but was transported to an area hospital for medical observation, Cassell said.

Anyone with additional information about the incident is asked to contact Metro Police Homicide Detail at (702) 828-3521 or leave an anonymous tip at Crime Stoppers, (702) 385-5555.