Man killed by officers near Stratosphere charged police
Las Vegas police on Thursday detailed a convoluted picture of what happened the night two Metropolitan Police Department officers shot and killed a man just east of the Stratosphere.
The shooting happened about 10:20 p.m. Monday in front of Siegel Suites at 2000 S. Paradise Road. A pair of officers — Lukas Ferris, 25, and Bryan Loy, 33 — were there, setting up part of a search perimeter, because police were looking for a shooter from a different incident, Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said.
As the officers approached the suites, Efren Trujillo-Soriano, 22, charged toward them, firing his weapon. The officers had “no time to take cover,” McMahill said.
In what witness Tyler Krym, 23, later called a “gunfight,” Trujillo-Soriano fired nine shots at the officers, and the officers fired 34 rounds in return, McMahill said.
Loy, who had been on the force for 8½ years, fired 18 rounds. Ferris, who had been with Metro for about a year — but was only on his third shift since finishing field training — fired 16.
Trujillo-Soriano was hit four times and later died at University Medical Center. Neither officer was injured.
McMahill said Loy was not wearing a body camera, and Ferris failed to activate his. Both have been placed on paid administrative leave as Metro investigates the shooting.
The man officers killed was later connected to both the initial shooting the police had been setting up a perimeter for and a robbery just before that, McMahill said in the Thursday briefing.
The robbery happened around the corner from where officers later fired, at 1951 Las Vegas Blvd. South, inside St. Louis Square, McMahill said.
Surveillance video played at the briefing shows Trujillo-Soriano wearing a backpack in the square as two men approach him. One of the men then appears to grab Trujillo-Soriano — at one point elbowing him in the face — before seemingly taking something from his backpack and walking away with the other man.
Trujillo-Soriano then walks the opposite way, and for a brief moment no one is on screen.
But seconds later, Trujillo-Soriano can be seen running back on screen, toward the two men who had left. In his right hand, he held what appeared to be a gun before disappearing from view.
Then, a witness, 25 floors up at the Stratosphere’s pool, saw everything unfold.
“We just witnessed some guy shooting somebody,” the man said in a 911 call that McMahill played Thursday.
The caller told the dispatcher the shooting happened at about 10:15 p.m. at the Carl’s Jr. across from the Stratosphere at 2001 Las Vegas Blvd. South. He described the shooter as someone wearing a backpack.
Police later determined the man shot was the same man who appeared to rob Trujillo-Soriano on tape. He was shot five times and was still in critical condition at UMC as of Thursday afternoon.
As the caller stayed on the phone, trying to spot the shooter, who had walked east to the Siegel Suites, he spotted a man with a backpack walking back toward the officers who responded at the Carl’s Jr.
The man with the backpack pulled out his cellphone at the shooting scene, seemingly taking photos of the man who had just been shot. The caller saw the man taking photos, and soon after said he would “bet money” the man was the shooter.
The dispatcher relayed that information to responding officers, and the caller became frustrated that officers below soon shooed away the potential shooter — unbeknownst to them — for taking photos.
The man with the backpack then walked back toward the Siegel Suites. The officer-involved shooting happened there a few minutes later.
McMahill commented on the possibility the shooter came back to photograph the other man, whom officers were working to save.
“I can’t think of a time that I can recall an individual that just shot somebody walk back up and take photographs and potentially video,” he said.
McMahill added that police were working to unlock the Samsung phone they recovered from Trujillo-Soriano to see whether those photos, or any other information, were on it. Trujillo-Soriano’s gun was also recovered.
Given the apparent robbery, police said the man who was shot and still at UMC may face charges. Police hadn’t determined a relationship between him and Trujillo-Soriano as of Thursday.
Metro said Trujillo-Soriano was an Army veteran who served in combat in Afghanistan from 2013 to 2014 but was honorably discharged in 2014 after a DUI in his home state of Arizona.
This was Metro’s fifth officer-involved shooting this year and the first that was fatal. This time last year, Metro had seen two officer-involved shootings, McMahill said.
Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Find @rachelacrosby on Twitter.