A photo of William Orellana is displayed during a briefing at Metro Police headquarters Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018. Metro Police assistant sheriffs discussed the two officer-involved shootings that occurred on Saturday, Aug. 4.
Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018 | 9:35 p.m.
A hit-and-run crash on a Searchlight highway kicked off an increasingly violent crime spree that led to the death of a man who on late Saturday opened fire on Metro Police officers.
The three pops from William Orellana’s 9 mm handgun, and the subsequent fourth that ended his life, were heard on police body-worn cameras.
Orellana, a 42-year-old man “dealing with a variety of significant personal issues and loss that he had had in his life,” died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, Clark County Assistant Sheriff Charles Hank said Tuesday afternoon.
A couple of officers who’d encountered him when they responded to a call of a suicidal person in a neighborhood near Jones Boulevard and Vegas Drive, were uninjured by the bullets Orellana fired from the back window of a stolen pickup truck, Hank said. Two shots returned by one of the officers missed.
The spree began at 9:13 p.m. Saturday as a Nevada Highway Patrol investigation of a hit-and-run crash involving Orellana's black Chevrolet Camaro, Hank said. The driver took off, heading north on U.S. 95 toward Las Vegas.
Twelve miles north on the highway, Orellana's car was immobilized because of the crash so he turned on the hazard lights and got out, gun in hand, Hank said.
A woman in a red Toyota pickup truck slowed down, Hank said, and that's when Orellana pointed the gun, forcing her to stop.
The woman set the truck in reverse but collided with another vehicle, allowing Orellana to take the truck at gunpoint, Hank said. The woman, who fled on foot, was uninjured.
At 10:48 p.m., an associate of Orellana contacted police for a welfare check of an acquaintance who was in front of 1512 Taylor Way, and possibly suicidal, Hank said.
While the officers were en route, the call was updated, informing them that Orellana may have been linked to a hit-and-run crash and subsequent armed carjacking on U.S. 95, Hank said.
Sure enough, the two officers in marked SUVs showed up to find a parked and occupied red pickup truck, Hank said. The first officer, who'd turned on emergency lights, immediately took gunfire when he exited his vehicle.
The second officer, Johnathan Tomaino, 25, shot twice toward the truck before the cops retreated for cover, Hank said.
Police in a helicopter circling the neighborhood noticed a man slumped on the driver's seat. Arriving officers soon confirmed that Orellana, whose wife and then girlfriend died in proximity to each other earlier this year, was dead.
Orellana's criminal record includes multiple DUI arrests and a 1998 domestic violence case, Hank said.
