Woman, officer injured in incident

A woman was shot in the head Monday night by a police officer after he was hit by the car she was driving, authorities said.

The shooting occurred in front of a check cashing business on Fremont Street near Las Vegas Boulevard.

Police were still interviewing witnesses at 11 p.m.

Lt. Charlie Davidaitis said the incident began about 9 p.m. when police were called to take two suspects into custody on bad check charges.

At some point, the unidentified female suspect walked in and attempted to cash a bad check at the Out of State Check Cashing. When she tried to flee the scene, Davidaitis said the car she was driving struck a police officer who fired one round at her.

The woman was listed in critical condition and the police officer was listed in stable condition at University Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said.

Police did not know if the two check cashing incidents were related.

A witness, Dano Barre of Las Vegas, said he was using the phone at the Western Union next to the check cashing business when he saw a woman run out and jump into a Chevrolet.

Barre claimed a shot was fired from the Chevrolet before the officer fired.

"The officer fell down about two seconds later and about 10,000 cops came," Barre said. "It’s like they did it at the same time, like a western movie."

Another witness, Steve Broderick of Long Beach, said he was walking around the corner when he heard a shot.

"I thought it was a car backfiring. It looked like they couldn’t get it going. But actually the car was crashing. All of a sudden I saw a lot of officers. They had their guns pointed right into their car from all sides. I heard the passenger say `Oh my God.’ He was holding his hands up," Broderick said.

Broderick said he walked over by the crash and saw the woman had fallen on the floorboard.

According to police department policy, the officer’s name will be withheld for 48 hours. This is the fifth shooting incident involving a police officer this year.