LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Taxpayers fund our local police departments, and we expect them to keep us safe.
But one officer's actions in a neighborhood near Twain Avenue and El Capitan Way are being called into question by a family who filed a formal complaint with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
The videos submitted with that complaint show an officer from the Summerlin Area Command whose aggressive actions are currently under internal investigation.
Police have asked the public to share their doorbell and surveillance videos to help investigate crime, but they can also catch cops behaving badly.
Lu Lobello's security camera caught an interaction between some officers and a civilian named Tony who was working on his boss's truck at Lobello's home.
Tony is trying to prevent the truck from being towed. As he questions the officers, one of them can be seen and heard on Lobello's security video yelling at Tony, "All day! Out of uniform any day, b—! Come here! Come here! Come here!"
"It was atrocious, it was disconcerting, it was ugly," said Lobello. "And it was a tirade! It was so shocking and against what I know their policies to be."
The officer, using his hand like a puppet, says the same thing to Tony over and over:
"Run your mouth! Run your mouth! Run your mouth! Run your mouth! Run your mouth! Run your mouth! Run your mouth! Run your mouth! Run your mouth! Run your mouth! Keep running it! Keep running it! Keep running it! Keep running it! All day!"
"It might have been one of the worst police interactions I've seen, in terms of professionalism," said Lobello. "It was a shame to see, and I'm glad that we had the footage to give you."
Lobello is a disabled veteran who became a criminal defense attorney after serving in the Iraq war with the United States Marines.
He still serves today, but in a different way.
"Me and my sister both started a company — Dutch Valley Dreams — where we work for formerly incarcerated individuals to help them work their way back into society," Lobello said.
Helping with everything from school, to jobs, to transportation, he even allows some clients to stay in his family's home until they can afford a place of their own. The house on Dutch Valley Drive is across the street from Bendorf Elementary School.
"The cops around this neighborhood routinely patrol around the school, around my street, and I'd say it would be odd if they weren't driving by," Lobello said.
In other words, police presence is common, but he says that officer's behavior is not.
Tony is part of the Dutch Valley Dreams community.
"Tony's been doing really well," Lobello says. "He has gotten a job with one of our partners, Hana Sushi, and in so doing has made good friends with the owner up there. The owner had a problem rolling down his window — his driver's side window."
On Oct. 21, 2023, Tony brought his boss's truck to Lobello's home — where he keeps his tools — to work on the window, but he parked it on the street facing the wrong way.
"It was illegally parked at the corner of my RV parking, and when the cops had rolled by and noticed that, they stopped," Lobello explained.
In the video, the officer explains to Lobello that there's also an issue with the license plate. Talking to Lobello, the officer says about Tony, "I can make his f—ing life a living hell. I've been leaving you guys alone. I've been being cool. And if I come out here and the car is — do you know what co-plated means? It means there's a plate on it that goes for another car. So, I have every reason to be here. I don't know what the f— his problem is!"
To Tony, he says: "Hey, you, check this out, bro. If I see you and I can find any reason to stop you now, I will!"
Because of the officer's behavior toward him, Tony said he did not want to speak to us on camera, but he did tell us he tried to diffuse things that October day.
On the video, Tony can be seen and heard saying, "Hey, listen."
Officer: What?
Tony: Be easy, bro. Why (are) you stepping out of line?
Officer: I'm gonna tow the car. I'm taking it.
"Then," explained Lobello, "the officer had started to look down the street and he noticed a motorcycle that was between my house and my neighbor's."
It was Tony's bike. There was no issue with it. The cops didn't take it. But Tony questioned them about that, too, on the security camera video.
"I'm asking what you're doing with my bike," Tony says.
"And that just set off a hurricane of anger and testosterone and aggression," Lobello said about the officer.
As Tony stands in the driveway, that officer starts clapping and walking toward him, saying:
"Tail between your legs! Tail between your legs! You want to go to jail, bro? You want to go?"
As Tony walks away, the officer calls after him, "Come here! Come here! Come here! Bring it on! Bring it on, man!"
"Not only is he a danger to himself, he is a danger to the people he interacts with," said Lobello. "And now you're making the job more dangerous for all the good cops out there that know how to de-escalate and know how to treat the public."
Another officer who was at Lobello's house calmly explained things, saying, "The truck doesn't belong to you, nothing like that, we'll do our job and get out of you guys' hair. Simple as that."
The officers had the truck towed and left behind a civil citation citing the truck owner, who was not present, for improper parking and unlawful transfer of license plates.
Neither Lobello, nor Tony, nor anyone else present that day was cited, arrested, or charged with anything.
And that remains true to this day: no charges for either Lobello or Tony in connection with the interaction or the circumstances surrounding it.
In response to a public records request made by 13 Investigates, Metro police confirmed that.
In fact, police didn't even create an incident report.
But there was body camera footage, which 13 Investigates requested. At first, Metro sent us an invoice for nearly $700 to cover the time it would take them to blur faces, saying "The Nevada Supreme Court recently held that officers' faces captured on body-worn camera videos are confidential."
Shortly after sending us that bill, Metro reduced its per-hour fee for redaction, so we resubmitted our request. But that time, they denied it altogether, saying "This case is currently under investigation by our Internal Affairs detectives."
That's in response to the formal complaint Lobello's family filed, concerned not only about that day but also future interactions between that officer and the public.
"If you can't control your verbal continuum of force, how are you going to control your physical continuum of force?" Lobello said.
Metro's Code of Ethics requires officers to "maintain calm in the face of danger, scorn or ridicule; develop self-restraint; and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others."
They must swear to "enforce the law courteously" and "never act officiously." (Officious is defined as, "assertive of authority in an annoyingly domineering way, especially with regard to petty or trivial matters.")
On Dec. 4, 2023, we requested an interview with the officer through Metro's public information office. We asked for his name and requested to speak to him and his commanding officer regarding the alleged violation of standards involving interaction with the public.
If neither of them would consent to an interview, we asked Metro to provide someone else on camera to discuss the concerns raised by the Lobello family.
Metro did not respond until Jan. 17, 2024 — hours before our story was set to air. In an email from the Office of Public Information, they wrote:
"We are unable to accommodate an interview for this matter.
An officer was in the 36-hundred block of Dutch Valley Drive on October 21, 2023, when he found a vehicle believed to have been stolen. He initiated a recovered stolen vehicle call through dispatch, and additional officers arrived on scene.
The LVMPD Internal Affairs Bureau was notified of a civilian complaint about the behavior of one of those officers on October 24, 2023.
There is currently an ongoing and active investigation of our officer’s behavior pursuant to our collective bargaining agreement."
In an email to the Lobello family, Metro's Internal Affairs bureau said when the investigation is complete, they'll get a letter in the mail with the disposition.
When they do, we'll follow up this story to let you know what it says.
