Undersherriff Kevin McMahill asks for protesters to rally peacefully during a press conference at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, Sunday, May 31, 2020.
Published Sunday, May 31, 2020 | 4:15 p.m.
Updated Sunday, May 31, 2020 | 8:51 p.m.
Before Metro Police deployed tear gas in the direction of demonstrators at the end of a Black Lives Matter protest Saturday night, officers stood back as agitators hurled rocks and bottles “for a very long time,” Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said.
That won’t be the case on Sunday.
Officers are stationed at three possible protest points across the valley Sunday evening with instructions to act before violence escalates so that the “peaceful protest(s) can continue,” McMahill said.
The demonstration in downtown on Saturday led to 103 arrests. Eleven officers were injured, a pawn shop was looted, a Metro SUV was torched, and taggers defaced various business fronts and government buildings.
In some cities, such as Reno, there have been reports of out-of-state instigators embedding themselves in the demonstrations. McMahill said that Metro received “intelligence” that “Antifa-like” protesters on Sunday were arriving in Las Vegas.
He didn’t expound on where that intelligence came from when asked, but said he believed the threats were credible.
In Friday’s protest on the Las Vegas Strip, which led to a confrontation between officers and participants, prompting 79 arrests and injuries to officers, McMahill said that only 15 of those arrested were not local. Police were still compiling Saturday figures.
“I have 25 officers alone that had to be treated medically because of rocks, bottles and fires,” he said. “Let me just say very clearly, that fires are not OK, throwing rocks is not OK. Throwing frozen water bottles is not OK.
“We remain prepared, not only in the past couple of days, but in the days to come, to go out and to ensure that those who are disrupting your ability to peacefully assemble and protest, that we will take them away and we will arrest them so that you can continue along with your peaceful protest,” he continued.
On Saturday, officers used tear gas to slow the aggressive crowd, saying “when officers attempted to stem the tide of violence by ordering the crowd to disperse, protesters defied lawful orders. Following several warnings to the crowd, police deployed canisters of tear gas.”
Police estimated 3,000-4,000 people participated in the protest, which started at Container Park and stretched from the Clark County Detention Center on South Casino Center Drive to the Federal Courthouse on South Las Vegas Boulevard and East Bridger Avenue, according to police. Metro had 300 officers on the scene.
McMahill spoke Sunday afternoon alongside elected officials, law enforcement, community leaders, and clergy outside Metro headquarters near downtown. They were empathetic to those demonstrating in the name of George Floyd — who on Wednesday died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on his neck for about 10 minutes — but pleaded with the community to display their anger in a peaceful manner.
Protests across the U.S., especially in the Minneapolis region, have led to violence, looting and rioting. Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was arrested Friday on third-degree murder and manslaughter charges in Floyd’s death. He and three other officers who witnessed Floyd being brutalized were fired.
“Before I was an attorney general, I was a black man,” said Aaron Ford, Nevada’s top law enforcement officer. “When I’m not attorney general, I will be a black man married to a black woman raising black sons.”
“And when these types of atrocities are happening across our country, we hurt,” he said, adding, “My sons themselves wanted to participate in these protests, and they have a right to do that. And if my sons do it, I will ensure, and they will ensure, that it is done in a peaceful way.”
Ford mentioned Metro’s police reform, prompted in 2012 in collaboration with the Department of Justice, following a strong of controversial use-of-force deaths.
“Are they perfect? Absolutely not,” he said. “Do we have work to do? We absolutely do. We want to continue working with you to make that happen.”
McMahill, who conceded more can be done, echoed Sheriff Joe Lombardo’s sentiment about Floyd’s death.
“I know the heart of men and women in Metro also and know the heart of this community,” McMahill said, adding that he hasn’t come across an officer who wasn’t disturbed Chauvin’s actions in Minnesota. “We’ve worked really long and hard to increase our relationships with our communities, but particularly communities of color and we’ve had great success all across our valley over the last 15 years.”
