LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department says the suspect shot and killed by police at a northeast valley convenience store on Oct. 27 reached for his handgun before officers fired rounds.
Metro Police held a news briefing Monday regarding what led up to the shooting and killing of the suspect, later identified as Maurice Parker.
According to police, Parker was being investigated for another shooting from earlier that day, before he had contact with police Tuesday night.
The first shooting occurred near Desert Inn and Maryland Parkway around 10:30 a.m. Police say Parker shot at a car in what officials believed to have been a narcotics-related incident. No one was injured.
WATCH THE BRIEFING:
Gang detectives investigating the shooting were able to identify Parker through witness statements, and surveillance video. They learned that Parker was employed as a clerk at a convenience store located in the 2500 block of North Pecos.
Four officers drove to the store to arrest him for the morning shooting. When they got to the store, they immediately spotted Parker standing behind the cash register. They, along with two other patrol officers, entered and gave Parker verbal commands to keep his hands in the air, on the back of his head and to not move, LVMPD Assistant Sheriff Chris Jones said during the Monday briefing.
After initially complying, Parker reached into his waistband to grab a handgun and turned towards the officers. Simultaneously, the four officers fired their weapons and struck Parker.
According to Assistant Sheriff Jones, two of the officers each one fired one round, another fired three rounds and the fourth officer fired eight rounds.
LVMPD revealed body camera and surveillance footage of the convenience store shooting during Monday’s briefing.
Parker was pronounced dead at the scene.
If he had survived, he would have faced the following charges:
- Shooting into an occupied structure
- Conspiracy to discharge a gun in within a vehicle or prohibited area
- Prohibited person in possession of a firearm
- Resisting an officer with an officer
- Assault with a deadly weapon on a public officer
Officials said that Parker did have prior charges from Nevada, California and Utah.
This is the 17th officer-involved shooting for 2020, and the ninth that resulted in a fatal.
This time last year, there were 14 officer-involved shootings, and 10 of them were fatal, LVMPD noted during the briefing.