Henderson police ID officer involved in sports bar shooting

Henderson police on Thursday identified the officer involved in a shooting at a sports bar on Tuesday morning.

The officer was Andrew Avanessian, who has been employed with the Henderson Police Department since January 2017, according to a Thursday night news release. Avanessian is currently assigned to the department’s field operations bureau.

The shooting happened after officers were called about 6:30 a.m. to “a disturbance” at the Bourbon Street Sports Bar, at North Major Avenue and Boulder Highway, police spokesman Rod Pena said Tuesday.

Officers found a 40-year-old man, later identified as Israel Valle-Lopez, in the parking lot, Pena said. He pulled out a knife after officers pushed him to the ground.

When the officers tried to take him into custody, Valle-Lopez tried to stab one of them, and the officers shot him, Pena said.

The man was taken to a hospital in stable condition, and no officers were injured, he said.

Avanessian was placed on paid administrative leave while the department investigates the shooting, police said.

The shooting marked the sixth shooting involving Henderson police this year, and was the first of two police shootings to happen in the city this week. On Thursday afternoon, police shot a man during a gunfire exchange in a Henderson residential area across the street from Brown Junior High School.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_nebwerg on Twitter.