Police Recruit Shot by Police

Police Recruit Shot by Police

As bullets peppered Miguel Quezada's apartment Friday night, he took shelter in the safest place he could think of: the bathroom.

The gunshots started about 8:45 p.m. Quezada looked out the window of his apartment -- on Mandalay Bay Road/Hacienda Avenue, a block east of the Strip -- and saw a man hurling Molotov ****tails into the street and firing a handgun into the air.

The man was later identified as a Metropolitan Police Department recruit.

When Las Vegas police arrived, the recruit began firing at them, and a gunfight erupted between officers and the man seeking to join their ranks.

Officers shot the recruit multiple times, and he later died at University Medical Center, police said Saturday. Police did not identify the recruit.

Quezada's apartment was left with bullet holes in the walls. One round made a fist-sized hole in a coffee table.

"It was crazy," Quezada said.

Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie, who on Friday night was at the scene of the shooting, across Las Vegas Boulevard from Mandalay Bay, said the recruit had been in the academy since Jan. 30.

A motive for the rampage wasn't known, but police were investigating.

"This definitely is a unique scenario that we've had occur out here," Gillespie said.

The sheriff couldn't recall in his 26-plus years with the department a shootout between police and a recruit or fellow officer.

The gunman was first spotted by AMR medics parked nearby.

The recruit had gotten out of his vehicle and started throwing Molotov ****tails. The homemade incendiary devices landed in the street and a dirt lot, near several large fuel tanks adjacent to McCarran International Airport property and the Oasis apartment complex at 5316 Danville Lane.

The Clark County Fire Department arrived to put out brush fires ignited by the Molotov ****tails but retreated after the recruit pointed a handgun at them, authorities said.

"He came loaded for bear, it seems," said Scott Allison, spokesman for the Clark County Fire Department. "Our firefighters don't usually have guns pointed at them."

A resident of the Oasis apartments, Frank Cardone, also saw part of the gunbattle between police and the recruit. From his second-story balcony, Cardone watched as the gunman -- described by witnesses as a heavyset man possibly in his early 30s -- ran in front of his apartment. The gunman then began indiscriminately firing, Cardone said.

"I thought it was a game," said Cardone, 87, a retired police officer from North Bergen, N.J.

Cardone knew it wasn't a game, however, when at least a dozen police officers converged on the property in front of his apartment.

"I said, 'Who the hell is watching the city?' There were 50 million police cars out here," he said.

Gillespie said two bicycle officers arrived first. After the recruit opened fire on them, one of the bike officers returned fire.

Police found two handguns in the recruit's possession, Gillespie said.

Although the shooting was still under investigation, Gillespie said the officers appeared to have acted appropriately in shooting the recruit. But the fact that the shooter was a police recruit probably would weigh on the officers, Gillespie said.

"It's a difficult situation out here just because an officer-involved shooting itself is very traumatic," he said. "And when they find out after the fact that it's somebody that's currently in our academy, I'm sure it adds more to the emotional side of what took place."

Las Vegas police spokesman Bill Cassell said the department examines recruits' backgrounds and puts them through physical and psychological tests. The details of those tests weren't available Saturday.

"We go through very extensive background checks and a screening process to ensure suitability for police work," he said.