Son’s death sparks plea for justice
Debate rages over ’15 police shooting
In the early hours of Nov. 24, 2015, a six-minute encounter with Las Vegas police would end in the death of Thomas Mceniry, who was shot multiple times as he knelt on the ground, crying and asking for help.
What followed is a yearslong dispute over the facts of the case between the Metropolitan Police Department and the 32-year-old man’s family.
“He was cheated from many things,” the man’s mother, Carol Luke, said through tears Tuesday during a news conference. “And that’s why I ask that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department be held accountable for their actions.”
The department has said that Mceniry, who had been pulled over that morning for driving an unregistered car, raised a gun at officers Kyle Prior, Robert Nord and Donald Sutton, prompting them to open fire. The Clark County district attorney’s office did not charge the officers in connection with the shooting.
Mceniry’s relatives vehemently deny Metro’s version of events.
And to mark the fifth anniversary of Mceniry’s death, Luke, alongside seven local advocacy groups, demanded that Metro reopen its investigation into the officers’ use of force and that the district attorney’s office pursue charges.
Police protections
“I have not even seen the faces of the men who cowardly killed my son,” Luke said Tuesday. Nor has she learned whether they received any punishment for their actions.
Protected by a state law, police
The 2020 turnout exceeded the level recorded during the 2016 presidential election, when 76.8 percent of voters cast ballots.
By state law, the Supreme Court meets with the secretary of state on the fourth Tuesday in November to open and canvass the general election vote for various offices. In a presidential year, that includes votes for Nevada’s six presidential electors. It also includes ballot questions, federal officers, state officers elected statewide or by district, members of the state Legislature, district judges, and district officers whose districts span more than one county.
Following the canvass, the governor issues certificates of election to the winners and issues proclamations declaring them duly elected. In a statement Tuesday, Gov. Steve
Sisolak said he would submit the so-called “Certification of Ascertainment” certifying that Biden’s Nevada presidential electors received the highest number of votes.
Issuing certificates for the scores of other winning candidates throughout the state “will likely take a significant period of time following today’s Supreme Court canvass,” he said.
A legal challenge filed by state Republicans and the Trump campaign is now scheduled for a hearing Dec. 3 in Carson City District Court. The lawsuit seeks to reverse the outcome
of the Nevada presidential election by invalidating tens of thousands of votes statewide. It relies on many of the same claims that other courts have previously rejected in similar lawsuits. The six people who serve as Republican electors are contesting the election outcome.
The meeting of state’s presidential electors is scheduled for Dec. 14.