Police kill woman

But Las Vegas police couldn’t stop her Tuesday morning with multiple shots from a bean bag shotgun, three 50,000-volt shocks from a Taser and pepper spray.

Police wound up putting two bullets into her, and she later died at a local hospital.

"It looked like she was PCP’d out," said one witness, Luis Flores, referring to the drug phencyclidine.

Known on the street as "angel dust," it makes some users feel and act invulnerable.

Las Vegas police deputy chief Ted Moody said it was too early to know if the woman was under the influence of any drug when she confronted police.

Her name, age and hometown were withheld by police.

The incident started about 8 a.m. after the woman, who was with a boy who appeared to be 3 or 4 years old, harassed Demetrius Price’s 17-year-old brother inside a Jack in the Box restaurant at Lake Mead Boulevard and Martin Luther King, Price said. He said the woman pulled out a knife and threatened his brother, who used a chair as a shield against her.

Police arrived and located the woman in the parking lot of a CVS pharmacy across from the restaurant. She had the child with her and was waving a kitchen knife, police said. Police said they believed the child was the woman’s son but hadn’t confirmed that Tuesday evening.

Officers tried to talk to the woman, but she refused to answer any of their questions, Moody said.

She then began wandering through traffic with the child and crossed the street to the west side of Martin Luther King.

Officers kept asking the woman to drop the knife and let the child go, but she ignored them, Moody said. One officer wrangled the boy away from the woman and handed him off to a person nearby.

When asked why police didn’t stop the woman when they got the child away from her, Moody said it was unclear. But, he added, it’s easier to grab a larger object, like a child, away from a person than it is to safely take away a relatively small weapon like a knife.

After the officers took the child from the woman, she was screaming at police, said Flores, who was watching from across the street.

"She was saying, ‘I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you!’ at the officers," Flores said.

Another witness, Bob Brown, said the knife the woman was carrying had a six-inch blade.

"You could just tell it was not going to be a good ending," Brown said.

Police fired a bean bag shotgun at her eight times, hitting her at least three times, Brown said.

"This guy (police officer) hit her square in the chest (with a bean bag fired from a shotgun), and she barely flinched. I’d be crying for weeks," said Brown, who watched the confrontation from his vehicle at the intersection of Martin Luther King and Lake Mead.

Brown, who was driving to work at the time, is the advertising director for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Police shocked the woman with a Taser three times, but she tore the device’s barbs from her, Moody said.

One of the officers then sprayed the woman with pepper spray, but that didn’t have any effect on her either, Moody said.

She walked about 150 yards north from the Jack in the Box on Martin Luther King, with officers following her.

She then tried to get into a vehicle and made a threatening gesture at the driver, Moody said.

An officer then shot the woman.

Flores said the woman appeared to have been shot in the chest and yelled, "You shot me!"

The woman started moving toward the officers after she was shot, so an officer shot her once more and she fell to the ground, Moody said.

A total of six officers were at the intersection, and three used some sort of force, he said.

The boy who had been with her was taken to Child Haven, the county’s temporary shelter for children.