Las Vegas police update about Friday’s officer-involved shooting — VIDEO
A Las Vegas policeman shot Jamal Gwynn twice in the chest and once in the left arm, and the man still managed to drive off in the officer’s patrol car.
And he drove it more than a mile before finally surrendering to officers, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.
Metro Undersheriff Kevin McMahill briefed reporters on the ordeal Tuesday afternoon and outlined the sequence of events in the shooting Friday night.
It started when a woman, with her three kids, was robbed and carjacked at about 10:30 p.m. in her garage in the 1400 block of Bow Creek Court. That woman told police she was robbed at gunpoint, and the thief fled in her white Chevrolet Malibu.
Soon after, officer Patrick Sherwood, 31, came upon the vehicle disabled on a landscaping area at an apartment complex in the 1100 block of North Buffalo Drive. Metro released surveillance video from the complex of the encounter Tuesday.
Sherwood exited his car and confronted the man, who was armed with a handgun. The man — identified as 27-year-old Jamal Gwynn — did not comply with the officer’s commands.
In the video, Gwynn ran and got in Sherwood’s patrol car. Within seconds of the car door closing, Sherwood fired four shots at him — McMahill said Gwynn was trying to get the shotgun that was mounted inside the vehicle.
Sherwood continued to command the man to stand down.
“Get out of the g— d—- car,” he shouted. “Get out of the car!”
The car then reversed onto the sidewalk and peeled off, nearly hitting Sherwood as Gwynn made a U-turn to exit the complex. The patrol car barreled through the exit gate and continued onto Durango Drive south of Washington Avenue.
Gwynn surrendered to officers shortly afterward and was taken to University Medical Center with injuries that weren’t life-threatening. McMahill said neither of the gunshot wounds penetrated the man’s chest cavity, likely because the rounds were slowed by the patrol car.
Gwynn is being held at the Clark County Detention Center. Police are recommending charges that include attempted murder, robbery with a deadly weapon, grand larceny and property destruction.
Sherwood, 31, works in the traffic bureau in the department’s tourist safety division and has been on the force since May 2007. He was placed on paid leave pending the outcome of a review of this event.
Per Metro policy, officers are supposed to secure their patrol vehicles when they get out. Officers have been trained to get out of the way of oncoming vehicles, when possible, rather than shoot at them. Sherwood fired additional shots at the vehicle as Gwynn drove it toward him.
McMahill said Sherwood saw the car window breaking and assumed that the man was firing back at him. There wasn’t any evidence that Gwynn fired any rounds from the Walther PPS air gun he had on him.
The undersheriff said Sherwood showed remarkable restraint in not shooting Gwynn when he first arrived at the complex and saw he had a weapon. He also said the department’s administrative review of the incident is ongoing.
Gwynn is due in court on May 26 in connection with an unrelated weapons charge from November. He had been arrested previously for domestic violence battery, trespassing and obstruction in 2008, McMahill said.
This was the department’s sixth officer-involved shooting this year.
Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Find @WesJuhl on Twitter.