Review focuses on fatal police shooting outside Laughlin casino

New details and never-before-seen video footage of the standoff — which unfolded over six hours on Aug. 19, 2019, and ended with six shots fired at Michael Lopez — were revealed Monday during the first fact-finding review to be held in Clark County since the nation was thrust into protest over police brutality in May.

Unrest erupted across the country, including in Las Vegas, after the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer. Protests were ongoing in many parts of the country as of Monday.

Law enforcement and elected officials in Nevada now face a reckoning, and a special legislative session was called on July 31 to tackle a litany of policy issues, including those related to police reform.

Last month, District Attorney Steve Wolfson admitted that the fact-finding review “is not a perfect process because the involved officers that caused the death of one of our citizens cannot be forced to testify” and that the process “is probably ripe for review to determine if any more improvements could be made.”

In Clark County, a fact-finding review is scheduled only after the district attorney’s office already has made a “preliminary determination” that a fatal police shooting or in-custody death was justified. The process is meant to provide the public with transparency over deadly police interactions.

No members of the public attended in person on Monday, although the review was livestreamed. It marked the 77th review since the process was adopted in 2013. Since its inception, not a single preliminary determination has been overturned following a fact-finding review.

‘Not going back’

Metropolitan Police Department Detective Blake Penny led the investigation into Lopez’s death. On Monday he presented evidence from the case that was submitted to the district attorney’s office.

The standoff began shortly after 1:20 a.m. when Lopez, carrying a tabloid magazine, approached a cashier’s cage inside the Aquarius hotel-casino. Tucked inside the glossy pages was a 9 mm pistol, according to Penny.

As Lopez approached the cashier, he set the magazine down on the counter and demanded money from the woman behind the cage. She refused.

It was his second failed casino robbery attempt in Laughlin that morning, according to Penny, setting in motion a series of events that would lead to his death.

Lopez’s criminal history dates to 1979, Penny said, and he had spent a combined total of two decades in prison over the years for various convictions. Records show he was convicted in 1983 in Nevada of attempted robbery, attempted burglary and transporting stolen property. In California, his convictions included robbery, bank robbery, transporting stolen goods and assault with a deadly weapon.

He had recently been released from prison, Penny added, and told officers that morning “he was not going back.”

Lopez, a 69-year-old resident of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, was visiting Laughlin with his fiancee, who was referred to during Monday’s review only as “Priscilla.” Penny said Priscilla had been gambling inside the Aquarius during the ordeal, “completely unaware” that Lopez had tried to rob the cashier cage and was now surrounded by police.

Several Aquarius security guards followed Lopez outside after the failed robbery. In the parking lot, Penny said, Lopez shot at one of the guards but missed as he fled to his dark blue pickup truck.

Within minutes, officers from Metro’s Laughlin substation had arrived and surrounded Lopez’s truck. At times over the next six hours, Lopez “was calm and said he would exit the car peacefully,” Penny said.

His ‘last confession’

Metro’s SWAT team, which traveled an hour and a half from Las Vegas, officially took over at the scene just before 5 a.m. Officer Cory Mikkelson, working as a sniper, was positioned in the nearby casino parking garage on the third floor, while officer John Susich remained on the ground among a group of officers taking cover behind an armored vehicle.

An hour later, it was revealed Monday, Lopez wrote what he called his “last confession.” In his letter, Penny said, Lopez admitted to robbing “the lady.” And on the back of the paper, which investigators later found inside his truck, Lopez had written in black ink, “PRISCILLA IM SO SORRY.”

Just before 7:40 a.m., after Susich again had tried to talk Lopez into peacefully surrendering, the suspect picked up his pistol from the back seat of his truck, raised it above his head and approached police.

At a news conference days after the killing, Metro released video footage of the moments leading up to the shooting, but the footage stopped just short of any shots being fired. On Monday, Penny’s presentation included videos of Lopez being shot.

The full videos showed that Lopez had lowered his weapon and pointed it toward the officers just before he was killed. Susich fired five rounds from less than 5 feet away. Mikkelson fired one round from his elevated position, about 114 feet away from Lopez.

Lopez was pronounced dead in the parking lot. An autopsy revealed that he had methamphetamine in his system at the time of his death, according to Penny.

Susich and Mikkelson were placed on paid leave at the time but since have returned to work, according to a Las Vegas police spokesman.

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.