The Las Vegas man identified by police as the gunman in the killing of a police officer had been the subject of prior welfare checks and had struggled with his mental health, according to police records and a family member.
But despite a cousin’s description of him as “detached from reality,” reports that he believed the FBI, CIA and law enforcement were harassing him, and at one point voicing suicidal thoughts before the shooting, Angel Lucas Lindsey may have still been legally entitled to buy and keep guns — because his mental health struggles may not have met state and federal thresholds to disqualify him.
The 21-year-old gunned down Metropolitan Police Department officer Austin “Zade” Abdelnabi on Aug. 4, police said. Lucas Lindsey shot Abdelnabi eight times with a CZ P-10 9 mm handgun with an extended magazine near Mountain Vista Street and Interstate 11 before another Metro officer shot Lucas Lindsey in the chest, Undersheriff Andrew Walsh said in an Aug. 7 news briefing.
Lucas Lindsey also shot himself in the head, Walsh said, and his official cause of death, according to the Clark County coroner’s office, was gunshot wounds to the torso and head.
Police confirmed that Lucas Lindsey legally purchased the gun, which also occurred before he had summoned Metro officers for a wellness check in May and told a dispatcher he did not want to live. It was not clear when exactly he bought the gun.
Records showed that Metro officers were aware Lucas Lindsey had a gun and knives, but when they made contact he no longer wished harm on himself.
Thomas Chittum, a former associate deputy director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and adjunct professor at UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law, said there is a distinction between having a mental illness, being diagnosed with one and being legally prohibited from possessing a firearm because of a legal mental health event.
“Nevada largely tracks federal law where people are only prohibited if they have been adjudicated ‘mental defective,’ or they have been involuntarily committed,” Chittum said. “‘Mental defective’ means somebody has found you mentally incompetent and that could be to stand trial or some other court decision. Those are the triggering events, so if a state puts a person on a temporary mental health petition to examine them, but they’re not held beyond that, that is not a disqualifying event. Even a voluntary commitment that lasted for a very long time is not disqualifying.”
Nevada law
Along with banning people adjudicated mentally ill, acquitted by reason of insanity or committed by a court to mental health facilities, Nevada law prevents controlled substance users and people convicted of felonies, misdemeanor domestic violence and stalking charges from legally owning or possessing a firearm.
The legal age to purchase a shotgun or rifle is 18. A purchaser must be at least 21 years old to purchase a handgun.
A Nevada law that went into effect in 2020 required most private gun sales or ownership transfers to be conducted through a federally licensed dealer to ensure a background check takes place.
Gun background checks vary from state to state, with the FBI conducting them for the vast majority of states across the country.
In the past, several states have struggled to submit criminal and mental health records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, in a timely manner, leading to federal legislation in 2018 that incentivized compliance.
Three years before the federal action, Nevada legislators passed changes to state law, requiring the submission of criminal and mental health records within five days of adjudication.
“For a long time, we’ve had a very strong reporting of criminal histories and that’s by far the most common reason a person’s purchase of a gun would be denied — because of a felony conviction, a misdemeanor or a crime of domestic violence,” Chittum said. “We have also gotten better about timely reporting of court orders that may prohibit that sort of thing and with mental health, specifically. There has been specific action and legislation to try and improve it nationally and in Nevada, too.”
Ethan Murray, a state policy attorney and legislative affairs manager at Giffords Law Center, an organization focused on gun safety policy, said there are loopholes to what appears in the background check system, pointing to emergency mental health holds in Nevada.
Murray said that emergency mental crisis holds, initiated by law enforcement or clinicians, will not appear in a background check without filing a petition with the court and a court order.
“Often, people initially brought to a facility will voluntarily admit themselves, avoiding that process,” Murray said. “As a result, someone can be in a mental health crisis, come to the attention of police repeatedly, and still pass a background check because nothing in that sequence ever generated a record that determines whether someone can own a firearm.”
Only a few states — including California, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York and Washington — have passed rules restricting gun possession in some capacity without requiring a court order.
For example, Connecticut prohibits people voluntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital from possessing a firearm for six months after the discharge date. Washington, meanwhile, issues a six-month firearm suspension for people who are detained for evaluation and treatment and present a risk for serious harm due to a mental health or substance abuse disorder.
California prevents people subject to a 72-hour mental health hold from possessing a gun for five years, with two or more holds in a single-year triggering a lifetime ban.
Murray did note that Nevada recently passed laws that have given law enforcement officials more tools, including a high-risk protection order law, also known as a red flag law.
“These measures can help fill the gap left by the mental health process,” Murray said. “They permit temporary removal of firearms and then require a higher standard for a ‘final order’ that results in a one-year prohibition on gun ownership.
Murray said a bill passed through the Nevada Legislature and signed into law in 2025 grants law enforcement officers the ability to confiscate firearms from a person placed on a mental health hold found on the person or in the vicinity.
Metro officers had previously encountered Lucas Lindsey on May 31, prompted by a call he made to 311 in which he told a dispatcher that he was experiencing a mental health crisis and wanted to die by assisted suicide. But when officers arrived, Lucas Lindsey denied wanting to harm himself and turned down an offer to go to the hospital.
Gun control advocates, ATF clash
The ATF has recently proposed changes to the definitions of “mental defective” and “committed to a mental institution,” prompting gun advocacy groups and a plethora of state attorneys general to sound the alarm that it could lead to dangerous individuals having greater access to firearms.
Some of the changes include more specific criteria to qualify as “mental defective,” including conditions that constitute an intellectual disability and adding the word “involuntary” to the definition of commitment. The ATF said it proposed the definitions so that veterans and others are not deprived of their Second Amendment rights.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford joined 20 other states and the District of Columbia to protest the changes in an Aug. 5 letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and ATF Director Robert Cekada, arguing the proposed rules would “substantially narrow” what “mental defective” means by imposing specific conditions and removing “any consideration of dangerousness.” The joint letter also says that a person found not guilty by reason of insanity but never involuntarily committed would not fall outside the criteria for prohibition.
Murray said that states like Nevada, whose laws largely follow federal rules, are at the greatest risk.
“This will likely result in greater access to firearms for people struggling with mental health and who are at high risk of harming themselves or others,” Murray said.
The ATF did not respond to a request for comment about the criticisms levied by gun control groups.
If you’re thinking about suicide, or are worried about a friend or loved one, help is available 24/7 by calling or texting the Lifeline network at 988. Live chat is available at 988lifeline.org. Additionally, the Crisis Text Line is a free, national service available 24/7. Text HOME to 741741.
Contact Devan Patel at dpatel@reviewjournal.com
