North Las Vegas police on Thursday night released body camera footage, home surveillance video and a 911 call from a Sunday incident in which, officers say, a gunman fired shots in a neighborhood and then died in custody.
The man who died has been identified by the Clark County coroner’s office as Daniel Lujan Jr., 39.
In a recorded video statement, department spokesperson officer Roberto Vaquera said dispatchers received numerous 911 calls about a man armed with a black rifle who was walking through a neighborhood in the 6000 block of Yellowhammer Place, near Aviary Way and the 215 Beltway, around noon. Vaquera said the man was “randomly firing an AR-15 rifle.”
One caller reported that a shirtless man holding a rifle was at the front door of their home on Yellowhammer. The caller told dispatchers they did not know the man.
“I have no clue who he is. He’s banging on my door,” the caller told the dispatcher in the 911 call released Thursday.
Vaquera also said callers reported the shirtless man “was firing the rifle into the air and in the direction of nearby homes and vehicles.”
Video of the gunman
Police also released home surveillance footage that shows a man using a rifle to bang on a front door before firing at least two shots. The footage also appears to show the shots being fired away from the home and toward the street and flower pots behind the front door.
When officers arrived around 11:56 a.m. Sunday, Vaquera said they found a man matching the suspect’s description lying in the street and repeatedly ordered him to remain on the ground. And then the man, he said, suddenly stood up, and officers immediately worked to take him into custody.
“The first officer to reach the suspect was met with active resistance after suspect assumed a fighting stance,” Vaquera said, adding that the officer used physical force during the struggle, causing the man to fall to the ground. However, during the encounter, Vaquera said that the man grabbed the officer’s department-issue rifle, prompting officers to deploy a Taser at least twice and use a baton before handcuffing him.
The body camera footage also appears to show officers struggling with the man on the ground as they repeatedly ordered him to show his hands. The footage does not clearly show whether the man was armed during the struggle, although police later said officers were unable to determine whether he was concealing another weapon because his hands remained underneath his body.
Police said they ultimately recovered an AR-15-style rifle from the front porch of a nearby residence.
Man pronounced dead
Vaquera said that after the man was arrested, officers then noticed he had become unresponsive.
“After the suspect was placed into custody, officers observed that he was bleeding from the head and immediately placed him on his side while requesting medical personnel to respond,” Vaquera said in the video. “Shortly after being taken into custody, officers observed that the suspect had become unresponsive.”
Officers did CPR, applied an automated external defibrillator and administered naloxone nasal spray, Vaquera said. Naloxone is used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. In a news release on Sunday, police said impairment was suspected.
Lujan was then transported to University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at about 12:57 p.m., police said.
Contact Lucas Hellberg at lhellberg@reviewjournal.com.
