LAS VEGAS (AP) — A man accused of killing a veteran Las Vegas police officer faced a judge Tuesday in a case that prosecutors have said might bring the death penalty.
Tyson Shawn Jordan Hampton, 24, stood silently as his public defender, Conor Slife, waived the reading of 27 felony charges including murder and attempted murder in the early Oct. 13 shooting that killed Officer Truong Thai and wounded Hampton's mother-in-law.
The courtroom gallery was full of off-duty police officers and union leaders as Justice of the Peace Cybill Dotson scheduled a Jan. 11 preliminary hearing. Prosecutors might seek a grand jury indictment before then.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson declined outside court to comment.
Police said Thai and Officer Ryan Gillihan were summoned by Hampton's wife and mother-in-law to a street side domestic dispute a few blocks east of the Las Vegas Strip. Authorities said the officers returned gunfire as Hampton shot at them with a high-powered pistol while driving away.
Gillihan and Hampton's wife escaped injury, but police said Hampton's mother-in-law was wounded in the leg. Her injury was described as not life-threatening. Gillihan, a police officer since 2017, is on paid leave following the shooting.
Hampton was arrested in his vehicle a short time later and remains jailed without bail. He also faces a misdemeanor domestic battery charge. He has not yet entered pleas in the case.
Thai, who died at age 49, was born in Vietnam and served for 23 years as a Las Vegas patrol and training officer, financial crimes investigator and firearms instructor.
He was mourned last week with a long funeral processionon the casino-lined Las Vegas Strip and eulogized by former co-workers and family members before an audience of hundreds at Central Church in Henderson.
