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March 28, 2024

Police: Officer shoots reportedly armed, nude suspect

Naked suspect OIS

Ricardo Torres-Cortez

Metro Police investigates an officer-involved shooting Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017, in Las Vegas.

Updated Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017 | 4:21 p.m.

Metro Police Shoot Armed Man

Metro Police officers investigate an officer involved shooting at the Life Springs Christian Church on East Warm Springs Road and Burnham Avenue on Saturday, August 5, 2017. Launch slideshow »

An armed man officials described as being suicidal and completely nude was shot by a Metro Police officer this morning in the south valley, according to Sgt. Jeff Clark.

The unidentified man, who was hospitalized in stable condition, had initially set down his gun on the ground and appeared to be surrendering, but was shot once sometime after he started to run back toward his weapon, Clark said. No one else was injured.

Officers and a police helicopter were dispatched at 11:01 a.m. to the 2000 block of East Warm Springs Road, near Eastern Avenue, regarding a nude man on foot threatening to commit suicide in a church parking lot, Clark said. Metro personnel quickly secured the area and began a dialogue with the man, he added.

At some point, the man dropped the gun, “appeared to start listening and obeying the officers’ commands,” and began walking toward the officers, who were trying to apprehend him, Clark said. But he turned around and started running toward the gun.

That’s when officers released a K-9 that was unsuccessful at stopping the man, who kept running, Clark said. An officer then fired one round, striking the man.

Details provided at the scene were “very preliminary” and a more detailed briefing is expected within 72 hours as is Metro policy, Clark said.

Officers provided first aid to the man, who was only described as being white, and he was rushed to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center where he remained in stable condition this afternoon, Clark said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how or when the man arrived to the church parking lot.

A man who did not identify himself and lives in an apartment complex near the church said he saw a naked man “walking really slowly with his head down, and had a pistol in his hand.”

He said he didn’t see or hear the shooting. “He looked really sad.”

This was the 16th shooting involving Metro this year, compared to seven during the same time period in 2016, when the agency investigated a total of 11 police shootings.

This was the sixth shooting in less than a month.

“It’s been a tough month for us,” said Clark County Assistant Sheriff Tom Roberts on Friday afternoon, as he was briefed the public on a Tuesday shooting that left an officer wounded and a suspect dead.

“Every one of those (police shootings) has involved somebody or a suspect trying to harm us or harm our officers,” Roberts said in the briefing.

“Despite that, our workforce is out there, day in and day out serving you and this community the way you expect us to,” he said. “Sometimes is pretty thankless and there’s not a lot of people that can do it.”

The increase of shootings is an issue Metro is evaluating, Roberts said, noting that there is no identifiable trend and that they’re difficult to predict.