Metro officer Austin Abdelnabi died after he was hit by multiple gunshots fired by an armed suspect in Tuesday’s gunbattle in east Las Vegas, a senior Metropolitan Police Department official said in a news briefing Friday.
Metro Undersheriff Andrew Walsh provided more details about the shooting Friday.
Walsh spoke to the media as part of a briefing to release body camera footage and additional evidence from Tuesday’s gunbattle that claimed Abdelnabi’s life as well as that of the suspect, 21-year-old Angel Tywan Lucas-Lindsey. Records from the Clark County coroner’s office showed that Abdelnabi, 30, succumbed to a gunshot wound to the right arm and torso.
Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said earlier this week that Abdelnabi responded to a call made at 3:57 p.m. about a man with a gun near the 4500 block of East Tropicana Avenue. Metro Capt. Adam Seely said at a separate briefing that police had received multiple reports of a person erratically waving a firearm near the intersection of Mountain Vista Street and Tropicana Avenue.
Police made contact with the reporting party before encountering Lucas-Lindsey in the vicinity of the 5400 block of Mountain Vista, near Interstate 11.
The sheriff said the man immediately ambushed Abdelnabi. In addition to Abdelnabi, a second Metro officer, Enrique Molinet, 29, was involved in the shooting.
Lucas-Lindsey’s cause and manner of death remain pending, according to coroner’s office records.
The department placed Molinet on routine paid administrative leave pending a review.
The shooting marked the ninth officer-involved shooting this year in Metro’s jurisdiction.
Abdelnabi, a South Carolina native, was a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps before joining Metro in November 2023. During his time in the military between 2014 and 2018, he received several medals for his service, including the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
Abdelnabi’s funeral service is scheduled for Aug. 14 at Central Church, 1001 New Beginnings Drive in Henderson, at 10:00 a.m.
He is survived by his wife, parents, two brothers and a sister.
At a briefing earlier this week, McMahill said that police had interacted with the suspect in the past, but none of those encounters involved crimes.
A LinkedIn social media page bearing Lucas-Lindsey’s name described him as a college student “highly motivated to learn and grow as an individual.”
Lee Williams, a cousin of Lucas-Lindsey, told the Review-Journal his family was blindsided by Tuesday’s events. He added that Lucas-Lindsey suffered from severe mental health challenges and was unaware of how he obtained a firearm.
This is a developing story. Please check back for details.
Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Contact Devan Patel at dpatel@reviewjournal.com.
