Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Police release footage in shootings
Two suspects shot dead by officers in nine days
Henderson police on Friday night released about 44 seconds of video captured from officers’ body-worn cameras during two fatal police shootings in September.
Between both shootings, which happened about a week apart, a total of 12 officers fired their weapons. At about 8:50 p.m. Friday, the Henderson Police Department released only one clip from each shooting.
The first happened Sept. 13, when four officers fired their weapons after a man holding a box cutter “charged” at officers inside a home on the 1500 block of Point Vista Avenue. Then, on Sept. 22, eight officers fatally shot an armed man suspected in a violent robbery.
Both clips appear to cut off immediately before officers begin firing.
Henderson police spokesman Rod Pena said Friday it’s up to the department’s command staff to determine when the body-worn camera footage is released and how much of it is released.
Pena said officers in both shootings had their cameras on, but he did not say whether all of the officers had their cameras on for the duration of each shooting.
Henderson police command staff could not be reached Friday night, and the releases said, “No additional details will be released at this time.”
‘Drop the knife’
In the Sept. 13 police shooting involving 36-year-old Ryan Yoshio Yamasaki, who was armed with a box cutter, officers responded to the Point Vista Avenue home around 4:15 a.m. in response to a woman’s calls for help. The video shows an officer in the home following the sounds of a woman’s screams.
One other officer is visible in the video as they move through the house with almost no light. The woman’s screams became more audible about 20 seconds into the 26-second clip, as officers see Yamasaki for the first time in the doorway of a lighted room.
“Drop the knife; do it now,” the officers screamed several times.
The man begins to run toward the officers, taking two steps before the video abruptly cuts off after 26 seconds.
The woman who called for help was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center and treated for survivable injuries.
It is unclear which officer the 26-second video footage came from. Police identified the officers who fired their guns as Haven Tillmon, Matthew Brown, Bridget Ward and Zachary Winningham.
Henderson police said one officer was shot in the foot during the encounter, but did not specify which one. A public records request made to the Police Department one day after the fatal shooting requesting a copy of body-worn camera footage from all officers who fired their weapons — including any possible accidental discharges — was denied by Lt. Kirk Moore of the department’s public information office.
Eight officers fired
Twenty seconds of footage was released from the Sept. 22 shooting, in which eight officers opened fire at 26-year-old Joshua David Works. The man led police on a short car chase after reports of a violent armed robbery near Teton Ranch and Carnegie Street around 4:50 a.m., police have said. Details surrounding the alleged robbery have not been released.
After officers tried to pull over Works’ car, he got out of his vehicle at Gibson Road and Trail Canyon Road, initially brandishing a gun in a “suicidal manner,” according to the Friday night press release.
In the video clip, an officer can be seen using both hands to point a gun and what appears to be a stun gun at Works, who was holding a gun to his head before running away.
“Drop the gun,” multiple officers screamed periodically.
The officer in the footage chased Works, who stopped by a wall before the officer pointed the stun gun and firearm at the man again.
The press release said that Works “leveled the handgun, pointing it at officers,” before they responded with deadly force, but the video cuts off before the shooting. Works appeared to have lowered the gun from his head just before the video ends.
It was unclear which involved officer the Sept. 22 footage came from.
The eight officers who fired their weapons were identified by Henderson police as Andrew Avanessian, Justin Chronister, Robert Hollingsworth, Joschua Loftis, Luke Good, Nicklaus Hamby, Michael Stevens and Michael Mayle. They were all hired between February 2015 and January 2017.