Las Vegas police release video of officer-involved shooting
The Metropolitan Police Department released body camera footage Monday of a shooting last week in which an officer opened fire at a man as he was attempting to evade police.
The suspect, 29-year-old Austin Cadeaux, faces five counts of battery with a deadly weapon and one count of evading a police vehicle in connection with the Wednesday encounter in the Speedee Mart parking lot at 3670 Paradise Road.
Shortly after 8:50 p.m. Wednesday, officers found a U-Haul truck in the Speedee Mart parking lot that had evaded police a few days earlier after police tried to pull him over for driving recklessly, Assistant Sheriff Brett Zimmerman said in the briefing Monday.
When officers approached the U-Haul that night, Zimmerman said, Cadeaux put the vehicle in reverse, ramming a patrol car. He then put the car in drive and hit a second patrol vehicle, at which point 25-year-old officer Joshua Byington opened fire, striking Cadeaux once in the right back, police said.
Byington did not activate his body camera until after he fired 13 rounds at Cadeaux, Zimmerman said.
“The initial officer who responded, because of the obvious quickness of the situation, he had turned the camera on, but it wasn’t until after he fired the shots,” Zimmerman said.
Police used body camera footage from other officers at the scene, with surveillance footage from the Speedee Mart, to decipher what happened.
The suspect sped north on Paradise Road toward Karen Avenue, where he struck two more cars before he was taken into custody. Cadeaux was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his upper right back and was walking without help Friday during his initial court appearance.
He was being held without bail Monday at the Clark County Detention Center pending a status hearing in the case Tuesday.
On Friday, during his initial appearance in Las Vegas Justice Court, Judge Ann Zimmerman denied the suspect bail after he cursed at both her and a prosecutor.
“He was ramming into police and civilian cars just to avoid arrest,” the prosecutor said. “He’s a danger to the …”
Cutting her off, Cadeaux yelled, “They shot me,” followed by profanity-laced statements. “I didn’t ram anything.”
Cadeaux eventually tried to walk away from the microphone at the glass partition while Zimmerman was still addressing him and his custody status. Two correctional officers had to pull him back to the microphone.
“I’m not the one who arrested you. I’m only here to address your custody,” Zimmerman later said. “I’ve certainly done nothing to earn your disrespect.”
Because of his recent arrest, Cadeaux, who has five prior felony convictions, also faces a probation violation in connection with a March conviction for possession of a stolen vehicle. Clark County District Court records show that at the time of Wednesday’s shooting, he was out on probation in that case on a suspended maximum three-year jail sentence.
Byington joined Metro in December 2016 and at the time of the shooting was assigned to the South Central Area Command’s community policing division. He has been placed on routine paid leave pending a review of the shooting, Metro said.
With the stolen vehicle conviction earlier this year, District Court records show that Cadeaux’s prior convictions, dating to 2014, are for attempted grand larceny of a vehicle, possession of drugs with intent to sell and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
In each case that resulted in a conviction, he had pleaded guilty as part of a deal. The dropped charges as part of those deals were battery, assault and resisting a public officer, according to the records.
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Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.
