Man shot by Las Vegas police is suspect in 2 homicides —VIDEO
Police have linked a man shot by detectives during a stakeout last week in Summerlin to two killings in the Las Vegas Valley, an official announced Monday.
The 38-year-old man, identified by police as Christopher Ashoff, was shot Thursday morning after he rammed police vehicles in the driveway of a house in the 500 block of Poplar Leaf Street, near Alta and Pavilion Center drives, Clark County Assistant Sheriff Brett Zimmerman said at a Monday afternoon news conference.
Detectives with the Metropolitan Police Department’s major violators bureau had come to arrest him on warrants stemming from a January shooting, Zimmerman said. Since Thursday, police have received “pretty good information” that Ashoff was a suspect in two homicides in the Las Vegas Valley, details of which would be released within about 48 hours, he said.
“Detectives assigned to major violators are responsible for locating and arresting the most violent and prolific offenders in our valley,” Zimmerman said. “The case we are here to brief today is no different.”
The officers began searching about 4 a.m. for Ashoff, wanted on charges of battery with a deadly weapon and prohibited possession of a firearm. By 8:50 p.m., they found him at the Poplar Leaf address and set up a perimeter in the neighborhood to try to arrest him.
Two attempts to flee
When officers ordered him to leave the house, he tried to escape out the back but was met by detectives and went back inside, police said. He later emerged from the garage in a sedan while officers were coordinating a plan to bring in SWAT and crisis negotiators.
Ashoff then backed into police vehicles parked at the bottom of the driveway, put the car in drive, accelerated into the house and again backed into the vehicles. One officer fired a 40mm foam projectile weapon toward Ashoff but it hit the car, Zimmerman said.
Ashoff then grabbed a pellet rifle from a passenger seat, prompting three detectives to open fire, Zimmerman said.
Ashoff was shot twice and was taken to University Medical Center with critical injuries.
Ashoff remained at the hospital but was expected to survive, Zimmerman said Monday. He faces charges of grand larceny of an automobile, resisting arrest with a weapon and malicious destruction of private property as a result.
Police played no body-worn camera footage from the shooting, as plainclothes detectives aren’t required to wear the portable recording devices, “due to the nature of their work,” Zimmerman said. Metro played radio traffic leading up to the shooting and a short cellphone video taken by a neighbor across the street that captured the car backing into police vehicles.
Seven rounds fired
Seven rounds were fired by Metro detectives Travis Cord, 46, and Brian Jackson, 45, and Henderson Police Department detective Brian Redsull, 35.
None of the detectives was injured during the encounter, police said.
Each detective is assigned to Metro’s Criminal Apprehension Team, an FBI-led, multijurisdictional task force staffed in Metro’s major violators bureau.
Cord joined Metro in March 2000, while Jackson joined the force in November 2006.
Redsull has been with the Henderson Police Department since March 2006, police said.
The detectives were placed on routine paid administration leave pending an internal review of the shooting, which marked Metro’s third officer-involved shooting this year. Officers have not fatally wounded any of the suspects, according to Review-Journal records.
However, in the department’s first police shooting of 2019, 33-year-old Isai Rodriguez, an attempted murder suspect, fatally shot himself in the head after officers opened fire during an hourslong standoff. His death was later ruled a suicide by the Clark County coroner’s office.
Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Mike Shoro contributed to this report.
