North Las Vegas officer injured after truck hits patrol car
A North Las Vegas police officer was injured early Friday when the driver of a truck involved in a recent series of burglaries rammed into a patrol car, leading to police gunfire.
About 2:30 a.m., a pair of North Las Vegas police officers tried to stop a white Ford F-150 pickup truck near Decatur Boulevard and West Tropical Parkway, North Las Vegas police spokesman Eric Leavitt said Friday.
The officers, one of whom was in training, saw the truck pull out of a commercial business complex before driving north on Decatur, according to a Friday night news release.
The officers searched for the truck’s license plate and realized it was fake. Officers attempted to pull the truck over, which caused a “brief pursuit,” the release said.
The suspicious vehicle initially stopped in a nearby residential neighborhood, but for unknown reasons reversed into the patrol car attempting to pull it over, Leavitt said. That happened on the 4800 block of Polar Lights Court.
When the truck backed into the patrol car, its passenger-side door was slammed shut on one of the officers, causing minor injuries. That officer then opened the door and shot at the car multiple times, the release said.
The Ford fled the scene, and officers did not find its occupants Friday.
The officer who was driving the patrol car, who was not injured, was in training, the release said. The person injured was a field training officer, and he was treated at the scene.
It remains unclear if the truck’s driver was injured by the gunfire, and it was unclear how many times the officer fired.
The officers were wearing body cameras that were activated during the pursuit.
During the investigation Friday, detectives determined the truck may have been involved in a series of recent business burglaries, the release said. Police are searching for two people suspected in the burglaries, who were shown in surveillance footage released Friday night.
The footage showed a man wearing a black hoodie, a baseball hat and a cloth tied around his face enter what appeared to be an office. He rifled through drawers and entered another room before another man, also wearing a hoodie with what appeared to be a pink piece of fabric tied around his face, ran into the business.
The two men carried what appeared to be boxes out of the building, and the man with the pink fabric emptied a trash can, entered the back room, then ran out the door with it.
Further details about the burglary string were not available on Friday night. It was unclear when the burglary depicted in the surveillance footage happened.
The department also released surveillance footage of the patrol car following the truck through a residential area.
Friday’s was the third police shooting this year investigated by North Las Vegas police.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the Ford, the burglary cases or the shooting can call North Las Vegas police at 702-633-9111, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter. Marvin Clemons and Review-Journal staff writers Rachel Crosby and Rio Lacanlale contributed to this report.
