Woman says man burst into residence before police shot, wounded him
Janeen Placencia was at her friend’s northwest valley condominium Monday afternoon when a "nervous looking man" repeatedly knocked on the door.
After he was denied entry three times, Placencia grew apprehensive. Four young children were in the home.
She called 911 and told the dispatcher: "There’s a man outside the door. He looks like he’s hiding. He’s sweating."
She wasn’t comforted by the dispatcher’s response.
The man at the door fit the description of a suspect police had been searching for most of the afternoon near Marquesa condominiums, 7200 Pirates Cove Road, near North Tenaya Way and Westcliff Drive.
When the man knocked a fourth time, Placencia cracked the door, and he pushed his way in.
"I know you guys called police," Placencia recalled him saying.
The man, who was Caucasian and appeared to be in his mid-20s, had a gun in his right hand. Placencia and her friend, Heather Eschete, were terrified.
The man told the women to sit on the couch. He ordered the frightened children, ages 4 to 8, to go to a back room.
Placencia said that when the man pointed the gun at her, "I knew he was going to kill me."
The man’s behavior was erratic, and at one point, he put the gun in his pocket.
Placencia, who believed she was in a life-or-death situation, grabbed a cellphone and dialed 911 behind her back.
She quietly spoke to a dispatcher while hiding the phone with a pillow she held against her chest. She had almost completed the call when the man heard her tell the dispatcher the building number.
"Now you’re in trouble," she recalled him saying. "Things are going to get ugly."
Placencia said the chaotic scene unfolded in a few minutes.
Las Vegas police were working their way toward the second-story condominium when they heard screaming, Capt. Patrick Neville said. Officers kicked in the condo’s door.
Placencia said that about 10 police officers were in the two-bedroom home with their guns drawn. They ordered the man to put down his weapon. He refused, Placencia said. He also put both hands in the air, still holding the gun, and repeatedly yelled, "Just shoot me!"
Placencia moved away from the man. She didn’t see the shooting, when one officer pulled the trigger and hit the man once near the abdomen, Neville said.
Placencia said police showed amazing restraint. It’s because of them that she is alive to tell the story, she said.
"What they did was absolutely necessary," Placencia said. "If they didn’t break in the door, I can’t see anything except him killing us."
Neville and Placencia both said they were unsure whether the intruder’s gun was real. It could have been a BB gun, Neville said.
As of late Monday, the suspect, who wasn’t identified, had gone through surgery at University Medical Center and was expected to survive.
Neville said the man probably will face a slew of charges for breaking into the condominium, a possible weapon’s charge and a choking charge.
Neville said that at 2 p.m. Monday, police were called to the 7300 block of Pirates Cove in search of a man who choked someone in a domestic violence incident. Neville said the suspect who was shot was the man police had been searching for.
The suspect did not live at the condominium complex, he said.
Neville said the 911 call about the possible prowler was made at 5:10 p.m. The shooting occurred at 5:16 p.m.
The identity of the officer who fired the shot will be released within 48 hours of the shooting per Metropolitan Police Department policy. The officer has been placed on routine paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation.
Monday’s shooting was the 13th time this year that at least one Las Vegas police officer fired a weapon on duty.
Contact reporter Antonio Planas at aplanas@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638.
