Law enforcement experts weigh in on recent deadly shooting by Las Vegas police officer

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The number of shootings involving Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers has gone up drastically so far in 2024.

So far this year, there have been 13 such shootings — eight of them fatal. At this time last year, Metro officers had fired their weapons in six incidents, two of which were fatal.

After we shared the story of the most recent shooting involving a Metro officer — on Nov. 12 near Sunset Park — many viewers left comments on our social media platforms questioning the actions of the police officer who fired his service weapon.

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That officer was identified as 26-year-old Alexander Bookman, who is now on routine administrative leave during an internal investigation.

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Man who called 911 for help shot and killed by Las Vegas police officer

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Channel 13 spoke to two law enforcement experts to weigh in on the incident.

Both of those experts told us police shootings are a complex topic because of what's known as "reasonable standards." According to LVMPD's use of force policy, those standards include considering factors like the severity of the crime, whether a person poses a threat and whether someone is resisting arrest.

One of the experts we interviewed, Joe Blaettler, is a retired deputy chief of police for Union City, New Jersey and the current owner of East Coast Private Investigators. Blaettler said the body-worn camera footage from this shooting could show excessive use of force.

Watch the body-worn camera footage from this incident here. [Warning: This video could be upsetting to some viewers.]

"From what I'm looking at, from what they're releasing, I don't see the danger to the officer," Blaettler said when we showed him the video. "I don't see the danger to the guy with no shirt. I don't see a danger to the guy in red."

From what Metro police have said, this call began as a report from 43-year-old Brandon Durham, who told dispatchers "multiple people were outside shooting at his residence."

According to police, Durham then stated "someone had entered through the front and back doors of the house, and he was locking himself in the bathroom."

Several officers arrived on the scene, including Bookman, who can be seen in the body camera footage kicking the front door and entering the house.

Bookman goes down a hallway yelling, "Metro police!" and then encounters two people struggling over a knife.

It is difficult to distinguish who is holding the knife in the video, but there is a shirtless man on the right, who we know now is Durham, and a person in a red hoodie on the left, whom police identified as 31-year-old Alejandra Boudreaux.

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Bookman commands the two to drop the knife, and just a second later, you can hear gunshots before both people fall to the ground. Durham was killed.

"He's continuing to fire while they're on the ground," said Blaettler. "Everything happens so quickly in real-time, but that's where training comes in. I mean, cops are trained to handle these types of situations."

Retired Hobbs, New Mexico police officer Antonio De La Fuente believes the shooting could be justified.

"I don't know what's going on in the officer's mind," said De La Fuente. "He shows up, hears people yelling in the house, makes entry because a guy is armed in the house somewhere. I really couldn't hear if there was somebody in the house yelling. Officers do have a right to protect people, property, and themselves, as well."

Metro's use of force policy also states officers should only use deadly force "in the most extreme circumstances where lesser means of force have failed or could not be reasonably considered."

Whether Bookman attempted other less-lethal use of force was not mentioned during a Metro press conference on Thursday about the shooting. Asst. Sheriff Dori Koren said it's still early in the investigation.

WATCH: Hear what Asst. Sheriff Dori Koren said about the progress of this investigation

"I can't speculate on exactly what the officer knew at the time or what the perception of threat was at the time," Koren said.