Henderson Police
This screen grab from body-camera footage shows Mason Workman in front of his Henderson home during an altercation with police that led to his shooting death.
Thursday, April 30, 2020 | 9:50 p.m.
For several minutes, Henderson officers tried to reason with the drunk and increasingly agitated armed suspect.
Mason Workman argued with them from behind a decorative steel door on the front porch of the home he shared with his fiancee.
At one point, Workman lifted his shirt to reveal a gun tucked in his waistband. In his expletive-laced diatribe, he challenged officers to a shootout.
A photo he had posted on social media of his fiancee next to some guns had terrified her and prompted her call to police.
Workman defended the post and demanded that the officers leave, according to body-camera footage of the April 19 incident in the 2200 block of Galindo Court, near Anthem Parkway and Reunion Drive.
When they stayed put, Workman “racked the slide” of his gun, pointed it at police, and shot, Henderson Deputy Police Chief Michael Denning said in a video news release. The round hit an officer in the chest but was stopped by his bulletproof vest, leaving him severely bruised.
Officers returned fire and Workman lay fatally wounded. Henderson Police didn’t broadcast clear images of the actual shootout.
Officers didn’t say if Workman’s fiancee was able to leave the house before they arrived, but minutes before, at 9:30 p.m., she summoned them from inside while Workman was in the driveway.
She feared what would happen if he entered, according to audio of the interaction with the 911 dispatcher. She knew he owned multiple guns and that he was drunk, she said, noting he was “a bit out of line ... I’m worried.”
Footage shows officers and Workman engaging in small talk in the front yard. “What’s up, man,” he is heard saying.
But he soon appears agitated, beginning to curse. Workman goes into the garage and tries to close the door, but an officer apparently stops the automatic door.
The next images show him at the front door. After the shooting, Demming said, police found a rifle and three full magazines right inside the door.
Officers continued to converse with Workman, who said the last time he’d dealt with them, they’d taken him to the hospital. Police didn’t expound on their history with Workman.
Then Workman grabbed his gun, pointed it, and the conversation was over. He died in a flurry of bullets fired by Officer Alejandro Alcantara and Officer Conrad Lillegard.
