Man shot by North Las Vegas police allegedly drove toward officers
The North Las Vegas Police Department has identified a man who fled down Interstate 15 at 120 mph after he was shot by an officer on Wednesday morning.
Just after 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, officers were investigating a crash at Cheyenne Avenue and Van Der Meer Street, near the College of Southern Nevada’s North Las Vegas campus, when 26-year-old De Jahn Lee Washington pulled up to the scene, parked his car and approached officers, saying “he had information regarding the incident,” according to a statement issued Thursday by the department.
Officers smelled alcohol on Washington and asked him to do a field-sobriety test “because they had seen him leave his vehicle to speak with them,” the department said.
Washington refused and ran back into his car. Officers followed and one officer attempted to “pull Washington out of the driver’s seat as he attempted to flee,” police said.
Another officer “gave Washington commands to stop” as he put the vehicle in drive. “The car then came towards the officer,” who shot at Washington several times as he fled the scene, police said.
Police spokesman Eric Leavitt said Wednesday that Washington was hit by the gunfire, but it was unclear how many times.
Officers then chased Washington’s car down Interstate-15, with Washington reaching 120 mph “as he fled from police,” the department said.
“For the safety of all involved, supervisors quickly terminated the pursuit,” police said.
About five miles from the shooting, Washington pulled off I-15 onto southbound Lamb Boulevard and “rolled his vehicle,” crashing with another car.
He then fled the crash and ran into a nearby business, where he was taken into custody by officers, police said.
Leavitt said Wednesday that Washington was hospitalized with survivable injuries. He appeared in Las Vegas Detention Center records on Thursday morning, but it was unclear if he remained hospitalized.
Washington did not appear in online court records as of Thursday morning. Police said Washington will face charges of resisting a public officer with a deadly weapon, assault on a protected person with a deadly weapon, driver disobeying a peace officer and endangering other persons or property.
North Las Vegas Municipal Court records show that Washington was arrested in August 2016 on suspicion of domestic battery and false statement to obstruct a police officer, and later pleaded no contest to the charges.
The officer who shot Washington will be identified within 72 hours, the department said. Wednesday marked the second police shooting involving North Las Vegas officers in 2020, according to records maintained by the Review-Journal.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.