interstate-15 southbound is closed near Charleston Boulevard by Metro Police officers and Nevada Highway Patrol troopers Tuesday July 27, 2021.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021 | 9:30 p.m.
Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Micah May
An agitated voice cracks through police radio traffic midday Tuesday: “He’s very, very critical, get people here now!” yelled the unidentified law enforcement officer.
He was speaking about his colleague and veteran Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Micah May.
Moments before, May was attempting to lay down stop sticks on Interstate 15 in an attempt to stop a carjacking suspect who led authorities on a lengthy car pursuit from the far north valley into the heart of Las Vegas, near the Strip, already having eluded multiple spikes.
It wasn’t clear how May was hit, but one second he was on the freeway trying to stop a dangerous suspect, and the next, he had vanished.
May “was hit, and I don’t know where he is!” yelled a colleague. A second voice in the background tells him what happened.
“He’s on the car, he’s on the (expletive) pursuing car!” the first trooper added.
May, a husband and father of two, who suffered life-threatening injuries, remained hospitalized at University Medical Center Wednesday in critical condition.
Well wishes have poured in from the law enforcement community. Colleagues from the Nevada Department of Public Safety on Wednesday gathered to write touching messages on his patrol car.
The account, which extends 40 minutes before May was loaded by his colleagues into a Metro Police helicopter that had landed on the traffic-less freeway, is based on official information, radio traffic uploaded online and videos shared by local TV news stations.
The suspect, who died in a volley of bullets fired by officers into the black Hyundai Elantra he used to evade authorities, hasn’t been officially identified. KLAS-TV on Wednesday named him as a man with a lengthy criminal record.
Officials have shared little information on the shooting.
When the radio recording kicks in, troopers are already pursuing a motorist suspected of carjacking someone using a knife.
Traveling about 45 mph, they’re heading south on I-15, near the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “Driver appears to be shuffling with items in the vehicle,” a pursuing trooper said.
The pursuit slows to 35 mph as the suspect passes the 215 Beltway in the far north valley.
At the time, troopers thought they were pursuing a woman. “She’s throwing (her) hands in the air,” a trooper said.
The motorist was driving erratically, switching lanes, and “brake checking,” authorities behind.
Spikes deployed near the Craig Road exit were ineffective, according to radio traffic, an outcome that would be repeated several times on the highway and on side streets where the pursuit continued because the motorist dodged them.
Troopers positioned themselves on several exits, trying to keep the motorist on I-15.
Meanwhile, the suspect kept driving erratically, switching lanes, and driving on the shoulder.
“She’s laughing hysterically in the car,” a trooper said, “throwing her hands in the air.”
Despite the labored attempt at blocking the freeway exits, the suspect exited at Lake Mead Boulevard, taking troopers and North Las Vegas officers through North Las Vegas roads, driving the wrong way, making U-turns and evading capture.
“She’s going in circles,” a trooper could be heard saying at one point.
“We have to box her, go ahead and box her in,” a trooper said. The efforts were futile, and the suspect pressed on.
Eventually, the suspect entered southbound I-15 again from the Cheyenne Avenue on-ramp.
It wouldn’t be long before the suspect struck Trooper May.
As soon as they realized what had happened, troopers mobilized quickly to stop the suspect's car.
“Can we block her, can we block her!”
“Box her in, box her in!”
“Ram that vehicle!”
“Where’s our trooper at?”
“Shots fired, shots fired — (May) is in the vehicle.”
Metro Police, who said they weren't involved in the shooting, have taken over the investigation.
The Injured Police Officers Fund is collecting money for May, 46, who’s been with the patrol since 2008.
More information is available on ipof.vegas.
