Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Video: Metro officer shoots knife-wielding suspect after interrupting stabbing attack

OIS

METRO POLICE

A screen grab from video shows a scene from an officer-involved shooting on Aug. 8, 2018.

Watching a man use a butcher knife to stab a woman’s neck at her east valley apartment complex, a 911 caller’s voice grows frantic as she describes the horrific scene to a dispatch agent.

“He’s in the house cutting her up!” the caller says, her voice trembling. “You need to send someone right now.”

The victim flees the couple’s residence into the parking lot, and the initial caller hands the phone to another resident for a play-by-play of the events as she investigates further. Within a minute of the 911 call, Metro Police Sgt. Daniella Cino arrives at the scene and is shouting at William Fuller, who has caught up with his victim, to put the knife down.

Breaths of exasperation are heard on the recorded 911 call, then shots ring out in the background. Ignoring Cino’s commands, the 30-year-old Fuller, in his blood-stained T-shirt, moves toward the officer, who fires two rounds from her 9 mm pistol from just feet away, killing him.

Audio from the call and footage from the brief confrontation were released Monday and presented by Clark County Assistant Sheriff Brett Zimmerman, who discussed the Aug. 8 shooting — one of five involving Metro officers in a span of seven days.

Zimmerman said the victim, who is the mother of Fuller’s children, was attacked in their shared residence at East Virginia Apartments, just after 9 p.m., with four children inside. The victim’s condition was not made known by police, but Zimmerman said none of the children were injured in the “chaotic and rapidly evolving” event.

Cino, 34, an 11-year Metro officer, fired her weapon just 43 seconds after arriving at the scene. She was lauded for her “bravery and decisiveness.”

“Her actions prevented a woman from being killed in a domestic violence incident,” Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman said Fuller had no criminal history and was involved in a police matter once — in response to a 2012 emergency call — but was not arrested. Zimmerman said that call was “not related” to Fuller’s domestic violence crime last week.

The shooting involving Fuller on Wednesday marked Metro’s fourth officer-involved shooting in a span of five days. Despite the rash of recent officer-involved shootings, Metro still has one fewer such shootings (14) than the same date last year.

On Aug. 4, SWAT officers fatally shot rape suspect Danzel Jamal Boyd, 28, after a 16-hour standoff at a central valley apartment complex. Police say Boyd fired at officers during the standoff.

Just hours later, in the north valley, Metro officer Johnathan Tomaino fired two rounds at carjacking suspect William Orellana, who prompted the gunfire by first firing three rounds at officers. Police said Orellana, 42, then fired a fourth round from his 9 mm handgun to fatally wound himself.

On Aug. 6, 62-year-old Spurgeon Daniels charged at a slew of responding officers from the inside of his extended-stay room in the central valley.

On Saturday, a responding officer shot and detained a man at a south valley retail store after police say the man — a security guard at the store — had opened fired on one of the store’s managers.

Zimmerman called the rash of recent police-involved shootings “traumatic” but said Metro officers are adequately trained to handle such shootings.

“We train all the time for these sorts of situations,” he said. “When a suspect is trying to cause the public or our officers harm, officers are taught to respond with the force necessary to contain the situation.”

A detailed briefing on Saturday's shooting is also expected either Tuesday or Wednesday.