LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — We've now obtained body-worn camera footage of a deadly shooting involving a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer at the South Point Hotel and Casino.
It happened Sunday night following a SWAT standoff inside the hotel.
Asst. Sheriff Dori Koren on Thursday said the man who was killed had "charged" at SWAT officers with a shotgun before he was shot.
WATCH: Asst. Sheriff Koren outlines the events of a fatal police shooting on Dec. 8
Koren said Officer Zachary Adam, an 18-year veteran of LVMPD, fired one shot that killed the man now identified as Caesar Reyes II.
Adam was part of the response to South Point on Sunday after hotel security called police to request a welfare check on an individual who was "potentially suicidal." The 26-year-old's family called the hotel after they found a suicide note at his home in California, Koren said.
When hotel security knocked on the door of Reyes' room, they told police they heard a firearm being racked. Patrol officers who tried to get in contact with Reyes got no response, so SWAT and crisis negotiators were called in.
After hours of attempted negotiations with no response from Reyes, SWAT officers used an explosive to breach the door, Koren said.
When the door broke, Reyes ran out of the room armed with a shotgun. Koren says he ran toward SWAT officers and ignored repeated commands to drop the weapon before Adam fired the single shot that killed him.
Despite officers' attempts to render aid, Koren said Reyes was pronounced dead at the scene. Police recovered the shotgun as well as a semi-automatic handgun from his body. Investigators have since determined there was no ammunition in the shotgun, Koren added.
"These types of incidents are a reminder for our community of the dangers our officers face on a daily basis — and for context, this was in a hotel and casino that was very busy because of a large event that was happening, and so our officers had to take the actions necessary to keep the community safe," Koren said.
This shooting marked the 16th officer-involved shooting in LVMPD's jurisdiction so far this year. It is also the fourth such shooting in the past month. At the same time last year, officers had been involved in eight shootings.
Asked by Channel 13's Alyssa Bethencourt to address that increase, Koren pointed to the department's efforts "to be very transparent and effective in how we deal with officer-involved shootings" since 2012, when the Office of Internal Oversight and Constitutional Policing was created.
"We acknowledge that our officer-involved shootings have gone up," he said. "I will say, it's important to understand that violent crime has gone down. Our officers have been working very hard to bring it back down from very high periods of time...and our officers have done a really good job."
He pointed out that homicides and violent crime in Clark County have decreased. As of this writing, the Nevada Crime Statistics dashboard shows a 30% decrease in homicides this year compared to 2023, and a nearly 24% decrease in overall violent crime during the same period.
"So we're doing really well in fighting crime, but unfortunately, we can't control all the circumstances when we encounter armed individuals or dangerous individuals, so in some situations, our officers are left with no choice but to take deadly force," Koren said.
