Man shot dead after striking ex-employer with SUV in Las Vegas

A disgruntled man was shot and killed Thursday in western Las Vegas after he allegedly used his SUV to crash into his former employer and injure a bystander, then drove toward a man armed with a shotgun who opened fire.

The Metropolitan Police Department was called at 6:33 p.m. about a man in a dark SUV trying to run over a pedestrian in the area of Cory Place and Dover Place just west of South Decatur Boulevard, police Lt. Jason Johansson said at a news conference Thursday night.

Police received numerous emergency calls from residents who reported that “there was a male driving in a dark SUV driving recklessly through the neighborhood” attempting to crash into the pedestrian, Johansson said.

“Shortly before officers arrived here on the scene, we were advised by the person who called 911 that there had been a shooting and that the male driving the SUV was deceased,” Johansson said.

Officers soon located the SUV on the south sidewalk of Cory Place at the intersection of Dover Place where it had crashed into a fence, he said.

“When officers approached the vehicle they clearly noticed that the driver was deceased from a gunshot wound,” he said.

Police also made contact with several pedestrians in the area including two who had been struck and injured by the SUV, he said.

One person suffered non-life-threatening injuries, and a second person had major injuries. Both were taken to University Medical Center, he said.

Officers also contacted a man who had been identified as the shooter, and he cooperated before being taken into custody without incident, Johansson said.

From a preliminary investigation, police learned that the male who was struck by the SUV was remodeling a house in the 900 block of Dover Place after the SUV driver, who had been working with him, showed up “in a condition where he was not fit to do his job, and was fired,” Johansson said.

A verbal altercation ensued at the house at which time the driver entered the SUV and began chasing down his former employer, Johansson said.

“He was attempting to hit him while driving east and westbound, both in forward and reverse on Dover Place,” Johansson said. “He struck his employer with the rear of the vehicle and that person struck the wall at that house.”

A second person not associated with the driver or employer was injured, either from being hit by the SUV or from debris from the wall, he said.

Several witnesses came out to see what was going on. They noticed the driver chasing the man, and “one of them came out with a shotgun, as the vehicle drove at the male who had the shotgun and attempted to run him over, that is when the rounds were discharged,” he said.

The driver veered into the alleged shooter’s front yard and into the wall before the shots were fired into the driver’s side of the SUV, he said.

“The entire incident is captured on video and corroborates the accounts provided by the witnesses,” Johansson said.

“In Nevada, this is a very unfortunate circumstance that it had to occur in this neighborhood,” he said, adding that the incident was not random but directed between two people who knew each other.

Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on Twitter.