North Las Vegas police ID officers involved in fatal shooting

North Las Vegas police identified the two officers, including one former department spokesman, who shot and killed a man in a CVS parking lot early Thursday after the man led them on a chase in a stolen car.

The officers were Aaron Patty, 39, and Phillip Schmidt, 43, according to a statement from the North Las Vegas Police Department on Saturday. Patty, who has worked for the department since February 2007, used to be a public information officer.

Patty and Schmidt shot and killed Jamarri Daiwon Tarver, 26, after police chased him for several miles throughout the city in a car that had been reported stolen out of Las Vegas. Tarver sped off from a police stop as an officer was waiting for backup just after midnight Thursday near Alexander Road and Revere Street, police spokesman Eric Leavitt said Thursday.

Tarver led police throughout the city, eventually ending up at a CVS parking lot near West Craig Road and Allen Lane, police said. In the parking lot, Tarver rammed at least two other vehicles, including a police car, Leavitt said.

Patty and Schmidt then fired “more than once” at Tarver while he was still in the car, he said.

“He rammed one of our cars, and when he did so, the officers were right there and discharged at least one round, both officers, at the vehicle,” Leavitt said.

While the car Tarver was driving had been reported stolen in a Las Vegas carjacking, Leavitt said Thursday that it was unclear if Tarver was a suspect in the carjacking.

Tarver died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds, the Clark County coroner’s office has said. The coroner’s office said Tarver was 25, but Eighth Judicial District Court documents and Nevada Department of Corrections records indicate Tarver was 26.

Schmidt has been employed with the department since March 2008. Schmidt and Patty were both assigned to the department’s northwest area command “graveyard squad,” police said Saturday.

Both officers were placed on routine paid administrative leave while the department investigates the shooting. Further information about the shooting was not immediately available Saturday.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.