Las Vegas Officer Killed In Shooting
Two Metro officers were shot at about 1:20 Wednesday afternoon. One of those officers is dead. Metro Police say an officer was going to the house in the southwest near Durango and Russell for a domestic call.
When he got there, he was confronted with a gun-toting unruly man, 22 year old Amir Crump, better known in Las Vegas by his nickname Trajik, the name he's been using as an aspiring rap musician. The officer called for back up and that's when an off duty officer in the area came to the house.
According to police, the suspect shot the first officer, killing him. That officer was 37 year old Sergeant Henry Prendis. The off duty officer shot and killed the suspect.
The off duty officer was also shot. He's being treated for non life-threatening injuries at UMC. His name has not yet been released
The last time a Metro officer was killed in the line of duty was in 1988. Officer Marc Kahre was on patrol when he spotted a shooting suspect in a car. As Kahre waited for backup on his motorcycle, the suspect jumped out of his car and shot Kahre.
The suspect was involved in a traffice stop later, and that's where he shot himself in the head.
Kahre joined the Metro Police Department as a cadet in 1973 and became an officer in 1975. He was 34 years old and was married with two children.
The shooting that killed Sergeant Prendis stemmed from a domestic disturbance call. In October, a report from the violence policy center found Nevada is number two in the nation when it comes to deadly acts of domestic violence; Alaska is ranked number one.
That same report found that five percent of the time, the violence in domestic disturbances was started by a husband or boyfriend of the victim.
Metro officers respond to dozens of domestic abuse calls everyday, It can be dangerous because officers are often confronting violent suspects and trying to bring their emotions under control. Clark County holds over 70 percent of the state's population; it also holds a majority of the state's domestic abuse calls. Unfortunately, Wednesday's call turned deadly.
"Is there something that these officers could have done different? No, there's not. This is a tragic ending to a routine call," said Andrea Sundberg of Safe House, a non-profit organization that provides assistance for victims of domestic violence.
Sundberg says this type of violence is prevalent in Clark County. Police officers responded to over 21,000 domestic violence calls in 2004; Metro officers responded to more than 19,000 of those calls. Sundberg says that number placed Clark County number one on the list of domestic violence calls in the state.
Police say Crump fired at least 50 rounds from what they believe was a semi-automatic assault rifle. As long as a gun is not fully automatic, it can be purchased and owned legally in Nevada. There is no Nevada law that bans assault rifles or rapid fire ammunition magazines. In Clark County, only handguns have to be registered.
The Federal Assault Rifle Ban began in 1994, but Congress let the ban expire in 2004. Even when the law was in effect, gun makers were able to get around it by making small modifications to assault style weapons.
According to the Violence Policy Center, Nevada was part of a three state region dubbed "The Uzi Triangle" with the largest number of copycat assault weapon manufacturers. Ten companies in Nevada, Arizona and Utah marketed modified Uzi's, AK-47's and other assault weapons despite the ban.
Many law enforcement agencies wanted the 1994 Federal Assault Weapon Ban renewed because of the danger the guns posed to police officers. Between 1998 and 2001, one in five officers killed in the line of duty were killed with an assault weapon.